Partner Article

Gamechanger law firm set to challenge Scottish legal market

Leading challenger law firm gunnercooke has announced its launch in Scotland, with new offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and with Simon Etchells as its first appointment at its new Scottish practice, gunnercooke SCO LLP.

The launch comes with a huge recruitment drive for the firm, who hope to attract talented lawyers across Scotland to join its team. The firm has already made its first Scottish recruit: Real Estate Partner Simon Etchells, who has joined from Dentons in Glasgow with 30 years’ experience in high value investment and development structures.

gunnercooke, which was founded in 2010 with an ambition to change the way legal services are delivered, will be the first fee share model to open offices in Scotland and is set to change the landscape.

Over the last decade the firm has won over 25 awards for its innovation and culture, and signed clients including Johnson Matthey, BAE Systems, Jet2 and Santander. The model is tipped to become increasingly popular over the next five years as more lawyers choose flexible working following the pandemic.

gunnercooke’s model sees its lawyers working remotely, as well as having access to office bases and support teams across the UK. The new offices are based in Edinburgh’s WeWork on George Street and the Garment Factory on Montrose Street in Glasgow.

Simon Etchells commented: “I’m hugely looking forward to advancing the gunnercooke brand in Scotland and welcoming talented Scottish lawyers to the team. This is a fantastic addition to the Scottish market, and I am confident that the firm’s modern business model will be attractive to great lawyers and clients alike. l am genuinely excited to see the firm grow and believe gunnercooke is uniquely equipped to thrive in the challenges set by the new normal.”

gunnercooke Co-Founder Sarah Goulbourne, added: “We plan on recruiting 60 new partners this year and hope many of these will be based in Scotland. There is a fantastic pool of talent across the country who are yet to find an opportunity to work in a new law firm model such as ours within Scotland. We help lawyers to become businesspeople as well as lawyers, so we’d welcome anyone who has the ambition to set up their own practice to get in touch.”

gunnercooke is a full-service commercial professional services firm, founded to change the way legal services are delivered to clients and how lawyers balance their lives. The firm’s innovative model sees partners with a minimum 10,000 hours practicing experience becoming trusted advisers to their clients, providing certainty of price and delivering the best quality advice.

Offices include Manchester, London, Birmingham, Leeds and the first overseas base in Berlin, which opened earlier this year.

The firm has also expanded into several specialist groups offering professional services, including gunnercooke Associates, management consultancy gunnercooke Coaching, gunnercooke Private Equity, and a charity group connecting business leaders with small charities, the gunnercooke foundation.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Short .