Brodies expands infrastructure, real estate finance and tax expertise with three new partner appointments

Scottish law firm Brodies LLP has appointed three new partners, recognised leaders in the fields of infrastructure projects, real estate finance and corporate and personal tax. Heather Thompson is a trust and tax specialist, whose experience spans a wide range of taxation matters across the corporate, private client and real estate areas. She is a member of the Law Society of Scotland’s trust and succession law reform sub-committee and STEP, the worldwide professional association for those advising families. She trained at Berwin Leighton in the City of London, where she qualified into the corporate tax team before returning to work in Scotland in 1987. She joins Brodies on 3 April and will be based in the Edinburgh office, working across the firm’s top tier-ranked corporate and personal tax teams. Drysdale Graham is a highly experienced lawyer, specialising in social and economic infrastructure projects. During his career spanning more than 30 years, he has worked closely with leading sponsors, investors and funders on some of the highest-profile PFI, PPP and NPD-funded projects in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, most recently the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and Aberdeen Harbour Expansion projects. Mr Graham joins Brodies on 1 May, having established and grown the Scottish projects practice of a London-headquartered firm. He previously worked in the corporate finance department of City of London law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He joins Brodies’ energy & infrastructure team and will be based primarily in its Edinburgh office. Chris Dun specialises in investment and development property finance, property investment trusts, social housing finance, education finance and securitisation and bond issues. He is ranked as a leading individual in banking & finance by The Legal 500 and is also ranked for his work on social housing in Scotland. The independent legal directory Chambers & Partners commends him as “a trusted adviser to an impressive roster of banking clients” who “regularly bridges the gap between lender-side work and social housing law”. He joins Brodies in the summer, and will be based in the firm’s Glasgow office. Bill Drummond, managing partner of Brodies, said: “We are pleased that lawyers of the calibre of Heather, Drysdale and Chris, each of whom is qualified in both Scotland and England & Wales, will be sharing their considerable expertise with our clients and further enhancing the service provided by our banking and finance, corporate, projects, infrastructure and real estate teams. “With infrastructure investment looking to ramp up, stimulated by significant funding commitments from the Scottish and UK Governments, and with consensus on the need to meet growing demand for new homes in Scotland, advice from acknowledged market-leading lawyers such as Drysdale and Chris will be in great demand. Similarly, Heather’s specialist expertise in both business and personal tax matters will be invaluable to clients at a time when we are seeing change in taxation internally in the UK as well as the likelihood of further complexity and divergence in international systems ahead.”