Turcan Connell promotes non-lawyers to partner status in readiness for ABSs

Scottish private client firm Turcan Connell has promoted two non-lawyers to partner-equivalent status in preparation for the ­introduction of alternative business structures (ABSs) to the legal market.

Fund manager Haig Bathgate has been ­promoted to the position of investment director and Bob Hair has become financial planning director. At the same time Alison MacKrill, a lawyer who is managing director of the firm’s international trust services office in Guernsey, has become a partner.

The firm, which is made up of chartered accountants and fund managers as well as solicitors, is a keen supporter of the ABS model, which could be allowed by the Scottish ­government as early as next spring.

The firm’s joint senior partner Douglas Connell said: “The model we’ve been promoting for some time is that of a solicitor-controlled firm where 75 per cent of the equity is owned by solicitor partners and 25 per cent by non-solicitor client-facing partners.”