The deal which has been worked on for the past six months has come to pass after the 230 partners from both firms backed the proposal. The two firms have an illustrious roll call of clients from Scotland’s private and public sectors including RBS, Standard Life, SSE, Diageo and the Scottish Government. The deal was orginally annouced when it was backed by partners unanimously last November. There is currently a team of 18 working on the IT for the merged company.

The firms

Addleshaw Goddard, which operates from offices in London, Leeds, Manchester as well as the Middle East and Asia, boasts 188 partners and 770 lawyers in four operating divisions with a turnover of £201.8m. With 45 partners and 134 lawyers across its Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, HBJ is the eight-largest Scottish law firm with turnover of £21.9 million in its last financial year. 

'an increased pipeline of business'

Malcolm McPherson, HBJ’s senior partner will become senior partner for Scotland alongside a new role on the Addleshaw Goddard board. He said at the time of the approval that he was confident that the combined firm’s cross-border capabilities ‘will quickly lead to an increased pipeline of business, as existing and future clients learn more about the significant advantages this deal will deliver for them’.