Paul Hally has been re-elected by his partners to serve a second consecutive term as Chairman of Shepherd and Wedderburn.

Paul, who was first elected to the position in 2014, chairs the Shepherd and Wedderburn board and will continue to work closely with his fellow partners and Chief Executive Stephen Gibb to chart the firm’s strategic direction over the next three years.

Paul has, during his first term, made a significant contribution to developing and implementing the firm’s business strategy, and representing the interests of colleagues and clients. He is also responsible for ensuring that clients receive legal services of the highest quality, upholding professional standards, encouraging diversity and safeguarding client information and data held by Shepherd and Wedderburn. This commitment has seen the firm recognised as one of the UK’s top 20 legal advisers in Legal Week’s Best Legal Adviser Report 2016-17.

In addition to his role as Chairman, Paul, who joined Shepherd and Wedderburn in 1984 and served as the firm’s Chief Executive from 1999-2004, continues to build on his reputation as one of Scotland’s foremost corporate lawyers.
He has over 30 years’ commercial experience as a partner, advising clients strategically and legally in the funds, financial services, banking and energy sectors. These include Cairn Energy, most notably advising on the company’s UK stock market listing and the listing of its Indian business, and Lloyds Banking Group.

Paul also acts as a reporter to the Court of Session in Edinburgh on significant corporate transactions, including the demutualisation of Standard Life and the merger of Lloyds Banking Group and Bank of Scotland. In addition, he is the convenor of the business policy panel of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

Paul said: “Stewardship of Shepherd and Wedderburn is a great privilege and honour. Ensuring that our clients and staff realise their plans and achieve their ambitions is fundamental to what we do. Our success has been achieved through the quality of the legal services provided by our people and the relationships of trust that we have built with our clients over many years. During the course of my next term I will strive to build on what we have already achieved, with unremitting client focus and a commitment to further enhance the market-leading legal services that we provide to individuals and businesses active in virtually every sector of the economy.”

Commenting on Paul’s re-election, Stephen Gibb said: “Paul has made an immense contribution to the firm’s progress and to helping clients achieve their objectives by ensuring that we continue to provide relevant legal services of the very highest quality. He is someone that clients trust implicitly and that has set the bar for the level of service the firm delivers.

“During his 33 years at the firm, Paul has led by example and has been a mentor to many young lawyers who have gone on to become partners at Shepherd and Wedderburn or to lead very successful careers in-house with many of our clients. We are a people business and that commitment to identifying and nurturing talent and encouraging diversity is at the heart of our success as a firm.”

Shepherd and Wedderburn is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The firm supports initiatives such as Investors in People and Project Scotland. Shepherd and Wedderburn is a founding member of PRIME, a pioneering initiative by the UK’s leading law firms to foster diversity in the legal profession by offering work experience and ongoing support to young people from less advantaged backgrounds.