Semple Fraser LLP was a Scottish

commercial law Commercial law (or business law), which is also known by other names such as mercantile law or trade law depending on jurisdiction; is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of Legal person, persons and organizations ...

firm, with over 150 staff, including 21 partners, and offices in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. It was founded in Glasgow in 1990 and collapsed in 2013.

History

The firm was formed in 1990 and began with 20 staff based in an office in Glasgow city centre. The founding partners – Alister Fraser, Paul Haniford, David Semple and Cesidio di Ciacca – took advantage of the recession in the property industry in the 1990s to double the space they occupied and grow the business. The Edinburgh office opened in 1998. The firm became an

LLP A limited liability partnership (LLP) is a partnership in which some or all partners (depending on the jurisdiction) have limited liabilities. It therefore can exhibit aspects of both partnerships and corporations. In an LLP, each partner is n ...

in June 2004 and a multinational partnership in July 2005. Semple Fraser opened their first and only English office, in Manchester, during 2009. In 2010, according to the legal referral site Legal 500, Semple Fraser's real estate and environment teams were first-tier in the Scottish legal market. Chambers, another legal directory, stated in 2011 that Semple Fraser had "the best EU and UK

waste law Waste management laws govern the transport, treatment, storage, and disposal of all manners of waste, including municipal solid waste, hazardous waste, and nuclear waste, among many other types. Waste laws are generally designed to minimize or e ...

team in Scotland". Vincent Brown, former head of the firm's waste and environment groups, wrote the legal textbook ''Environmental Pollution Law and Commercial Transactions'' (2004), which analysed the impact of environmental legislation on commercial transactions. Semple Fraser entered administration in March 2013, due to difficult economic conditions following the onset of the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

. The bankruptcy resulted in 62 redundancies. Parts of the defunct business were sold to rival firms in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Manchester - including Maclay Murray and Spens (now part of

Dentons Dentons is a multinational law firm based in the United States. It was founded in March 2013 by the merger of SNR Denton, Fraser Milner Casgrain and Salans. The Dentons name originally belonged to Denton Hall, a law firm based in the City of Lo ...

), Dundas and Wilson (now part of

CMS CMS may refer to: Computing * Call management system * CMS-2, a programming language implemented for and used by the United States Navy * Code Morphing Software, a technology used by Transmeta * Collection management system for a museum coll ...

), and

Weightmans Weightmans is a top 40 UK law firm with nine offices, employing more than 1,400 people, including more than 225 partners. The firm offers a range of legal services to public organisations, private companies and individuals. In the financial year ...

Main practice areas

Semple Fraser had the following main practice areas: *Banking & Finance *Commercial litigation *Construction *Corporate & Commercial *Corporate Recovery & Insolvency *Employment *Environment & Pollution *Intellectual Property *Planning *Property Finance *Real Estate *Tax

References

External links

Firm rankings in Chambers UK

Firm rankings in Legal 500
Law firms of Scotland Companies based in Glasgow Law firms established in 1990 1990 establishments in Scotland Defunct law firms of the United Kingdom Law firms disestablished in 2013 2013 disestablishments in the United Kingdom {{Scotland-company-stub