Balfour+Manson has won a rigorous tender process and will provide legal services to the Faculty of Advocates – the first new appointment to the role for many decades.
The Faculty invited offers for external advice in areas including Employment, Property, Charity Governance, Data Protection and Professional Regulation.
It also required the successful bidder to comply with the 10 Equality Standards published by the Law Society of Scotland and confirmation that the successful firm would sign up for the Faculty’s Fair Instruction Policy.
Elaine Motion, Executive Chairman of Balfour+Manson, said: “This is tremendous news and a real honour for the firm. We instruct members of Faculty regularly and have had a close and productive working relationship with both individual members and the Faculty as a whole.”
Mrs Motion said Balfour+Manson had significant strength and depth across all areas that the Faculty sought assistance on – and both the skill and scale to deliver.
She added: “As well as strength and depth, we offer a bespoke, individual service which comes from close communication across the teams. We are large enough to provide the skills required for the Faculty, but small enough to make us very agile, human and approachable.”
Balfour+Manson has around 130 staff and 23 partners, the majority of them female.
“Our firm has equality in our DNA, and I think this was really important in winning the Faculty tender,” said Mrs Motion. “We were the first firm in Scotland to appoint a female partner, Ethel Houston, in 1949 and we believe we are the only firm of our size in Scotland to have a majority female partnership. We signed up last year to the Faculty’s Fair Instruction Policy.”
Mrs Motion concluded: “Balfour+Manson is one of the most significant instructing firms in Scotland of the Faculty of Advocates. That has been a specific strategic decision of ours, because we recognise the skills and benefits the Faculty bring to our clients. We very much look forward to an excellent working relationship.”
Iain Reid, CEO of the Faculty of Advocates added; “We were impressed with Balfour + Manson’s comprehensive response to our tender exercise and look forward to working with them over the coming years.”
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