We are a leading 20 partner, medium sized law firm based in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, delivering legal services in the areas of dispute resolution, commercial and charities, and private client and property work. The firm has a distinguished track record since its inception in 1888. The firm combines the best of traditional values with a modern, progressive approach. Our firm is headed up by Chairman, Elaine Motion.
The rankings below show the areas of expertise that Balfour + Manson LLP offers to clients. You can see how good the service offered is in comparison to all other law firms nationally.
Data shown above is based on the reviews and client feedback collected by ReviewSolicitors over the last 12 months.
My overall impression of that Diana and her team are very professional in what they do, they show a lot of passion which makes a very good impression on the customers they deal with. It was very easy to contact Diana. The ladies at reception were also very helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes
Very sweet + Professional. Informative & Caring also
Was this review helpful? Yes
Met with and engaged Scott Clair for a couple of services and he is very pleasant and efficient and kept me informed throughout the process.
A representative from Balfour + Manson LLP responded to this review on 04 April, 2019
Thank you for taking the time to review us. We really appreciate it. Please let us know if we can be of assistance in the future.
Was this review helpful? Yes
Andrew was extremely helpful when dealing with my employment contract, very communicative and helpful. And we got the resolution we were hoping for!
A representative from Balfour + Manson LLP responded to this review on 11 March, 2019
Thank you for taking the time to review us. We really appreciate it. Please let us know if we can be of assistance in the future.
Was this review helpful? Yes
Good explanation given from the beginning
A representative from Balfour + Manson LLP responded to this review on 27 February, 2019
Thank you for taking the time to review us. We really appreciate it. Please let us know if we can be of assistance in the future.
Was this review helpful? Yes
Our experience of our dealings with Balfour+Manson has been of the highest standards.
Was this review helpful? Yes
What has been a very long and stressful process has been made a great deal easier by Jenna Dicken.
Was this review helpful? Yes
Very professional and helpful during the course of my case. I was kept informed all the time and Diana Mackenzie who dealt with the case always ensured she chased up things on my behalf. I was very happy with the level of service I received.
Was this review helpful? Yes
I was kept informed all the time and Diana Mackenzie who dealt with the case always ensured that she chased me up. Thank you on my behalf. I am very happy with the level of service I received. I will recommend this firm to friends and family.
Was this review helpful? Yes
Most of the communication was done via my parents who were the primary party in this case. However, they were kept fully up to date with progress. Julie and Jenna were excellent in returning emails and calls if I had any questions or queries. I think that Julie and Jenna provided an excellent service to myself and my family. They provided honest down to earth advice and were very realistic about any outcomes of the case. They were careful to manage our expectations and expenditure. I just wanted to add that Julie and Jenna are to be commended for not only securing a beneficial outcome for all but that they acted with the utmost professionalism and sensitivity towards a difficult subject matter in a very complex case.
Was this review helpful? Yes
Anne has been working exclusively in the area of Family Law for over 35 years, supporting clients through some of the most difficult and stressful times in their lives. Early in Anne's career, she became concerned at the damage partners can inflict on each other and their families, and strives, the best she can, to make clients aware of this and to understand the impact their actions can have and help them to move forward. She has acquired a reputation for giving clear and straightforward advice to try to avoid prolonging disputes unnecessarily. Over the years, her interest in helping people has not faltered and her experience has grown enormously. Anne deals with all areas of Family Law including adoption, child related cases of all kinds, guardianships, divorce, separation and pre- and post-nuptial agreements. Accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a Family Law Specialist, she regularly represents clients at Sheriff Court level, not just in Aberdeen, but throughout Scotland, and has considerable experience in Court of Session case work.
Julie specialises in many complex and high value cases. Having worked in Aberdeen as a solicitor since qualifying she has a real understanding of the industries local to Aberdeen, particularly oil and agriculture. Many of the personal injury claims Julie is in instructed in arise out of accidents offshore. She also has experience in dealing with international claims. Julie also maintains close ties with both universities in Aberdeen. She tutors Civil Litigation and Advanced Civil Litigation on the Diploma of Legal Practice at RGU and helped co-write the Advanced Litigation Module. She is also a Mentor for Aberdeen University’s Career Mentoring Programme (Law Stream).
Kirsten specialises in family law and advising clients on a wide spectrum of cases including divorce, cohabitation, separation, pre-nuptial/post-nuptial agreements, child residence and contact, adoption, including international adoption and children’s hearing work. She is accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in Family Law. When dealing with divorce and separation matters Kirsten likes to use the collaborative law process where appropriate. She has gained a wealth of experience in negotiating settlements for her clients using this process as well as more traditional methods of dispute resolution. In some cases court action will however be necessary. Since qualifying Kirsten has been involved in a number of novel and complex court cases, including Court of Session cases. She appears regularly at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and other courts in Scotland if required. Kirsten gained an insight in to children’s hearing work through her role as a panel practice advisor for the Children’s Panel in Aberdeen. She really enjoys undertaking adoption work for clients, whether that involves step family adoptions, adoption of a child placed by an adoption authority or adoptions with international elements and has been fortunate enough to be involved with a variety of adoption matters over the years.
Alan quallified as a Solicitor in 2010. He has a background in corporate and commercial work, and has developed a specialism in the law affecting Scottish charities. This was reinforced by a spell on secondment to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator. Alan joined Balfour+Manson as an Associate in 2014 and was assumed as a Partner in 2017. He also holds a qualification in investment management. He advises individuals and businesses on commercial matters, including: business sales and acquisitions; shareholders’ agreements and partnership agreements; commercial contracts, including customer terms and conditions; protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights; company formation and share transactions. He also works with charities of all shapes and sizes. He is regularly instructed to prepare charity reorganisation schemes, which can allow existing charities to modernise their constitutions, and even change legal form. He has established a number of new charities, including a community sports hub and a museum. As a result of his secondment to OSCR he has a good understanding of the regulator’s approach and is well placed to assist charities (and those who seek charitable status) in Scotland. He also has experience in assisting trustees who are subject to regulatory inquiries. More recently Alan has developed an interest in data protection. He has provided training for clients in relation to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
After qualifying as a solicitor in 1987, Alastair worked in Dundee before moving to Edinburgh. He worked for 17 years, latterly as partner in a civil and criminal litigation practice. He joined Balfour+Manson in 2009 and is a partner in the Family Law team. Alastair is also qualified as a solicitor advocate, which gives him extended rights of audience to appear in the Court of Session and the United Kingdom Supreme Court. He undertakes cases involving family law and child law issues, including financial provision divorce cases. He also undertakes a broad range of regulatory and criminal work and appears on a regular basis before the General Teaching Council for Scotland on behalf of members of the EIS Union.
Ann has over 20 years of legal experience in Scotland, England and Hong Kong which has given her a wide variety of different types of cases. She is qualified to practise in each country and I has enjoyed the challenges of litigation in each, which were exciting and fulfilling in different ways. Ann trained at Balfour+Manson and after broadening her horizons she returned in 1994. Since then she has conducted professional negligence, personal injury and commercial claims, primarily in the Court of Session. Many of the personal injury cases arise out of accidents at work, on the roads and in the air, including recent cases against the Ministry of Defence. Ann's main focus is pursuing medical negligence claims, on behalf of individuals. She has extensive experience in high value catastrophic injury claims, particularly birth trauma and has secured substantial compensation for clients in cerebral palsy and brain injury cases. She has a wide variety of cases, including surgical, GP and dental cases, those involving delayed diagnosis of cancer and eye surgery, as well as related health professions and for cosmetic treatment. She has been ranked in medical /clinical negligence work for a number of years in both the Legal 500 and Chambers.
After qualifying in the mid 1980s Elaine practised in Edinburgh building her litigation experience in a number of areas before heading to New Zealand where she worked as a barrister and solicitor for a number of years. After leaving Auckland in 1993, Elaine returned to Scotland to take on a new challenge that year at Balfour+Manson, becoming a partner of the firm in 1997 and a solicitor advocate in 1999. For many years Elaine headed up the litigation department of some 65 professionals before taking up the position of Chairman on 3rd March 2014. She follows a great tradition of equality which is a core part of what the firm stands for; Ethel Houston was the first female partner in a Scottish law firm at Balfour+Manson and Elaine is immensely proud and humbled to be the first female ‘Chairman’. She has very significant experience across the Commercial Litigation field – whether it be by way of Appeals from organisations such as the National Appeal Panel for Pharmaceutical decisions; challenges in relation to grants or refusals of planning applications (e.g.wind farms) or for giving general “gate keeping” advice to organisations to prevent challenges and/or set up the ability to challenge. Elaine has worked on many cutting edge and ground breaking cases and in doing so has been able to cross refer her expertise and knowledge across these areas to the benefit of the client. She practises as a solicitor-advocate and in that capacity has appeared in the House of Lords on a number of occasions. Elaine is ranked highly Civil Liberites, Professional Discipline, Administrative and Public Law and Clinical Negligence by Chambers UK Guide to the Legal Profession.
Fiona joined Balfour+Manson in 1997 and has worked in dispute resolution since qualifying as a solicitor in 1998. She became a partner in 2005. She is also qualified as a solicitor advocate, which gives her extended rights of audience to appear in the Court of Session and the United Kingdom Supreme Court. Fiona works in Court of Session litigation, including administrative and public law, commercial litigation and personal injury cases. Following the 2015 UK Parliamentary Election result, Fiona acted for the petitioners in the first Election Court case in Scotland for half a century. She also practises extensively in professional discipline and regulation, including advising on judicial review proceedings and appeals to the Court of Session, as well as advising on and appearing at hearings before professional disciplinary bodies.
David is a partner in our Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution team. He is also the firm’s Client Relations Partner and Risk Management Contact. David practices extensively in business law advising clients how to resolve a wide range of disputes, including contract and partnership, claims against professionals, recovery of personal and business debts and insolvency issues. He also has an interest in private client matters and, in particular, disputes arising out of Wills, Trusts and Executries.
With over 25 years experience David specialises in personal injury damages cases from straightforward to highly complex matters. He regularly represents clients in road traffic accidents, industrial disease, work place and clinical negligence cases. He has a particular specialty in aviation accident cases having represented clients in 22 air crash matters. He is currently representing clients in the Malaysian Airlines MH17 incident and the Shetland helicopter ditching on 2013. He has ongoing cases representing Kenyan tea pickers for injuries sustained on tea plantations in Kenya. David is accredited as a specialist in Personal Injury Law by the Law Society of Scotland and was the first APIL accredited occupational disease specialist and asbestos specialist in Scotland.
Gordon is qualified to practice in both Scotland and England and often advises Scottish-based clients on English-based disputes. He undertakes a wide range of work involving commercial disputes. This ranges from commercial contract and property-related claims, to shareholder/partnership and claims against professionals. Gordon has become increasingly involved in claims against banks in respect of sold interest rate swaps and other financial products.
Having specialised in commercial property since 1987, Hugh has had enough time to build up good experience in all the main sectors - office, industrial, retail, leisure, and in acting for occupiers, investors, developers and lenders. He has also been heavily involved in more specialist areas such as social housing, public sector property projects (such as housing PFIs), grants and aquaculture, and advising on property law reform. He enjoys both working out how straightforward transactions can be done better, and dealing with pathfinder projects.
Iain is accredited by The Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in both professional negligence law and personal injury law. He has a significant case load of medical negligence work as well as dealing with high value road traffic and work accident claims in both the Court of Session and Sheriff Court. He is regularly invited to deliver seminars to lawyers on aspects of personal injury practice and procedure as well as civil litigation costs and funding. Iain also has a particular interest in quality assurance and peer reviewing having acted as a Peer Reviewer for the Law Society of Scotland since 2003. He is currently one of only 3 solicitors in Scotland to have been accredited as a Fellow by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers.
Jamie's day-to-day practice involves acting on behalf of and advising individuals on contentious and non-contentious issues in connection with their own personal relationships, largely arising from the breakdown of those relationships and relating to issues concerning children and financial provision in those circumstances. Where court proceedings are required, Jamie has experience of appearing and acting on behalf of clients in the Sheriff Court and has acted in high-value proceedings concerning financial provision in the Court of Session as well. Additionally, he acts on behalf of members of the EIS Teaching Union in disciplinary proceedings before the GTCS and has appeared on a regular basis at Hearings before Fitness to Teach panels of the GTCS since the beginning of 2015. He also acts and assists with a variety of additional civil litigation matters, including property and commercial disputes, and has advised upon Guardianship applications made in courts across Scotland. He has spoken on the topic of Guardianship applications at a Central Law Training Conference for Personal Injury practitioners.
Since qualifying Karen has advised on a wide range of personal and family issues. She specialises in wills and estate and succession planning including inheritance tax mitigation, trusts and the law concerning incapacity and executry administration. She regularly assists clients in organising their personal affairs as well as setting up and administrating trusts including personal injury trusts and charities. Karen is recognised as one of Scotland’s leading legal advisers on personal injury trusts. She is frequently asked for formal opinions by Counsel, other solicitors and financial institutions. Karen has particular experience catering for the needs of elderly and disabled clients and advises on all aspects of succession either by them or by family members wishing to support them now or when they are no longer here. She also provides advice in relation to incapacity planning, including powers of attorney, intervention and guardianship orders.
The firm is the sole Scottish member of The Parlex Group, an alliance of law firms. This ensures that our clients have instant access to specialist legal advice concerning their business affairs throughout the European Economic Area and beyond. Parlex has members in most European countries and affiliate members in the United States of America, China, Israel and Malaysia. We take pride in delivering a personalised service to all its clients, who include public sector organisations, regulatory and disciplinary bodies, companies, partnerships and individuals. The relationship we develop with our clients is central to the success of this approach.
