Harper Macleod overhauls management with new non-lawyer boss

Scottish firm Harper Macleod has completed a restructure of its senior management, appointing the firm’s finance director to the position of chief executive and making the managing partner firm chairman.

Martin Darroch, who had been the firm’s finance director for four years, was named as the new chief executive, while Lorne Crerar will take on the role of chairman.

The firm’s 31-strong partnership took the decision to appoint a non-lawyer to its senior business manager role, with Darroch handed responsibility for overseeing the administration and development of the management functions such as human resources, IT and finance.

Crerar will focus on the client-facing management of the firm, which posted a turnover of £10.4m for the 2005-06 financial year, a growth of 30 per cent. The firm, which is the Scottish member of City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse’s European alliance, is also due to expand its Glasgow offices in the autumn.

Darroch said: “We don’t regard ourselves as a traditional law firm [and] a strong, well equipped management structure can now support the legal expertise we have to offer.”

Crerar said: “Harper Macleod has never been afraid to challenge conventional thinking within the profession, an approach that has proven to be the cornerstone of our success.”