Turcan Connell

Turcan Connell WS is a Scottish legal firm working exclusively with individuals, families and charities. It has offices in Edinburgh, London, Guernsey and Glasgow. Founded in 1997 from the private client unit of Dundas & Wilson, one of the oldest and largest firms in Scotland, it is widely considered the country's premier private client firm. Its 2011 turnover was £22.3m. The Lawyer magazine put the firm at number ninety-four on its list of the largest UK firms by 2010 turnover. The firm has twenty-one partners and over three hundred staff, working in Legal, Wealth Management and Tax.

Practice

The firm acts exclusively for individuals, families and charities, providing a full range of private client services. Its stated vision is "to offer all the professional advice under one roof that an individual might need during their lifetime."

It is rated by legal directory Legal500 as a first tier firm in Agriculture and estates, Charities, Family, and Personal tax, trusts and executries, its only other rating being in the third tier for Employment. It is described as "dominant on the private client front." In the Chambers and Partners directory, Agricultural & Rural Affairs, Charities, Family/Matrimonial and Private Client are rated Band 1, and Employment Band 5.

Locations

The firm's main office is in the Prince's Exchange building on Tollcross, Edinburgh. It also has offices in London and Saint Peter Port, Guernsey (where it operates through its wholly owned subsidiary, Saltire Trustees). A further office opened in Glasgow in September 2012.

History

The firm was formed in August 1997 from the private client business of Dundas & Wilson, one of the largest firms in Scotland, which from then on focussed on commercial clients. The founding partners were Robert Turcan and Douglas Connell. Turcan had trained at Shepherd and Wedderburn, qualifying in 1972, and was assumed as a partner in Dundas & Wilson in 1973, while Connell had spent his entire career at D&W, qualifying in 1976 and being admitted to the partnership in 1979.

In December 1997, shortly after the firm's creation, the private client unit of rival W&J Burness joined the firm, at which point Turcan Connell also acquired Burness's Guernsey office. The firm opened its London office in 2007 to serve an "increasingly international client base." The firm's investment management capability was hived-off in April 2012 to create Turcan Connell Asset Management Limited, and a further office opened in Glasgow in September 2012.