The new unit provides a dedicated and experienced team of lawyers to directly support their clients within their business premises.

The SSU provides a unique strategic approach offering Scottish clients a full-time, permanent CMS team of specialist lawyers with private practice experience across a range of sectors. During secondments, the unit’s commercially-focused lawyers serve as key members of their client’s in-house team working closely with them to understand their needs and provide tailored solutions.

Once embedded, the SSU offers timely support, skilled guidance and creative solutions on the various challenges that businesses and their legal teams encounter. By remaining integrated with CMS, seconded colleagues can also offer clients immediate access to deep expertise, future facing technology and resources from across the wider firm to provide innovative solutions.

The unit also gives SSU lawyers a unique platform to develop a “best of both worlds” career, combining high quality in-house opportunities with a diverse private practice career within a specialist team of an international law firm. The CMS model is unique as its SSU colleagues remain employed full-time by the firm and fully integrated within its practice group teams.

The official launch of the new SSU comes after a successful development period where CMS opened the unit and rolled out its services to a range of existing clients including the University of St Andrews, Marie Curie, and Vattenfall – producers and retailers of electricity and heat for Europe.

Sandra Leece, Vattenfall’s director of Legal UK, said: “The Strategic Secondment Unit at CMS provides much needed flexible support for my in-house team both to cover absences and also gives us additional capacity to support our growing businesses.

“The lawyers within the unit are all used to working in an in-house environment so already know the additional demands faced by an in-house lawyer.”

Allan Wernham, managing director of CMS Scotland, said: “The Strategic Secondment Unit demonstrates our innovative approach in how we can deliver value for our clients throughout Scotland.

“After a successful pilot programme where we supported 12 engagements across our client base in Scotland through secondment programmes, we are delighted to be able to roll the unit out to the wider market.

“The unit brings together a team of exceptional professionals who offer legal expertise, operational support, and a commercial mindset to help clients progress their business.

“Having our team members embedded within a business delivers immense benefits as our secondees offer their skills, experience and commercial acumen and can swiftly identify the key points that truly matter to our clients.”