Ledingham Chalmers’ managing partner Jennifer Young admits to being as surprised as anyone by her current elevated position. The first in her family to go to university, she says she “fell into doing a law degree” in her home city of Aberdeen, an education that paved the way for the self-confessed “control freak” to train at legacy Dundas & Wilson in Edinburgh and later become managing partner of Ledingham Chalmers in June 2020. The 2006 split of a previous incarnation of Ledingham Chalmers, which saw much of the firm’s oil and gas practice join legacy McGrigors, now Pinsent Masons, could have signalled the end of the firm. Instead Young, ever the glass half full strategist, saw the split as an opportunity to rebuild the firm along more focused lines. Ledingham Chalmers remained full-service but ramped up the focus on its core client base of individuals, SMEs, owner-managed companies and family businesses.
The result? A firm that posted solid financial results last year and which is looking to double its revenue off a platform of sound business practices and canny investments. Young’s appointment as the CBI’s chair north of the border, beginning this month, will only help raise her – and her firm’s – profile even higher.