Maclay partner takes up GC role at Wood Group

Brown, who was based in Maclay’s Edinburgh office, has relocated to Aberdeen to take up the group head of legal and company ­secretary position. He replaces Ian Johnson, who has left the company.

Brown trained with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and had a spell in the Melbourne office of Allens Arthur Robinson legacy firm Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks before joining Maclay in 2000.

Brown’s practice to date has focused on private ­equity, restructuring and M&A. While at Maclay his clients included Bank of Scotland Corporate, investment houses Elphinstone and Czura Thornton, and House of Fraser, which he advised on its acquisition of landmark Edinburgh department store Jenners.

Brown said of his new appointment: “This is a tremendous opportunity to be part of a dynamic organisation with a proven record of international growth.”

In 1982 Wood Group, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, spun out of ­Scottish fishing company JW Holdings, which had diversified into energy ­services during the North Sea oil boom in the 1970s.

Brown is the latest Maclay partner to leave the firm for an in-house role. Earlier this year employment partner Maureen Burnside left after 22 years to become company secretary at Robert Wiseman Dairies, for which she had acted since 1988.

In February 2009 longstanding corporate partner Gordon Brough left the firm to take on the role of global head of legal at Aberdeen Asset Management.