Commercial law firm Burness Paull LLP has confirmed three promotions to partner and one new lateral partner hire.
The new appointments are aligned to important growth areas for the firm – energy and technology.
Building on its status as a premier adviser in the clean energy sector, the firm has promoted two talented energy lawyers, Neil Bruce and Peter Ward to partner.
Peter Ward is a respected and passionate energy and regulatory specialist and is an expert in matters relating to grid connection, regulatory compliance, power purchase and offtake arrangements. Neil is a real estate specialist with a decade of experience in advising developers, funders and landowners in relation to renewable energy projects across a wide spectrum of technologies.
Burness Paull’s renewables team has been involved in some of the most innovative clean energy deals, advising clients including ScottishPower Renewables, EDF Energy Renewables, BayWa r.e. UK, Statkraft and Fred Olsen Renewables. In the last 12 months, the team has worked on the three offshore wind farms currently under development in Scotland – the Moray East, Beatrice and Neart na Gaoithe projects.
Both Peter and Neil are in the vanguard of the sector working alongside energy clients in developing cost efficient and sustainable partnerships with large industrial users of electricity, and with developers on a number of ground-breaking subsidy-free renewable energy projects.
Lynne Gray becomes a partner in the health & safety and corporate crime team. Lynne has expertise advising senior management teams among the international oil & gas sector in crisis response, contentious health & safety enforcement (including criminal prosecutions), fatal accident inquiries and regulatory and compliance work including anti-bribery and corruption. As a partner she will lead the expansion of this specialist offering with a particular emphasis on the wider energy sector, engineering and food & drink.
The firm’s tech sector credentials have been further bolstered by the appointment of Colin Miller, who has joined from DWF, as a partner in the tech & commercial division. Colin is a highly-experienced and respected IP, commercial and competition lawyer. His arrival will expand the firm’s dynamic tech sector capacity which has seen revenues grow by over 50% in three years with high-profile client wins including C-Trip/Skyscanner, Expedia Group, Zoopla, uSwitch, Administrate, the Oil & Gas Technology Centre, as well as the world’s largest cloud provider.
In addition the firm has appointed a record 25 newly-qualified lawyers – representing a retention rate of 88% of trainees.
Burness Paull managing partner Tamar Tammes commented: “Culture has always been important to us and we know it is the reason clients return to us again and again. We celebrate individuality, high performance and differences in approach and we are united in delivering the very best for our clients.
“We have made a significant investment in our Developing Leaders Programme and have promoted at least four new partners from that pool each year for the last three years.
“Those internal promotions, the record numbers of newly-qualified lawyers we have retained and the calibre of people we have been able to attract to the firm underline the commitment we have to developing high-performing talent that can deliver exceptional legal services.”
