STAFF loyalty was a key factor when one of Scotland’s longest-established legal firms signed up as a living wage employer.
Balfour+Manson, founded in 1888, places a premium on ensuring its employees enjoy coming to work and get on well with their colleagues. It also wanted to ensure the same applied to employees of contractors of the firm and this was another important driver to become a living wage employer in 2015.
“If we have happy employees, they are more committed to the firm,” said the firm’s executive chair Elaine Motion. “Signing up for the living wage was an easy choice for us. It reinforced to our staff that we continue to value them and the time they spend in the workplace. Treating people respectfully should be vital to the success of any business. That includes contractors’ employees too.
“Moreover, it really matters when work colleagues get to know each other, not just superficially. It enables them to become a strong, cohesive unit from which the entire firm benefits.”
Balfour+Manson employs almost 130 people in its headquarters in Frederick Street, Edinburgh and its expanding office in Carden Place, Aberdeen. This includes 76 members of staff in non-legal roles, including the firm’s central services department, plus receptionists, post room and copy room staff, and a court runner.
“We have great staff and exceptional staff loyalty,” said Motion. “Many of our people have been with us for a long time – around one-third of staff have worked for Balfour+Manson for more than a decade. Nine people have been with us for more than 30 years and two of them for more than 40 years.
“The living wage is part of consolidating that relationship, that strong bond, between the firm and its staff.”
Being a living wage employer has also had positive business benefits, Motion said. “Our clients very much value living wage accreditation too. They see that we are an employer who cares about and supports its staff – and they also value working with a law firm that stands up to be counted in this way.”
Balfour+Manson is one of only 14 legal firms, plus the Law Society of Scotland, who have Scottish Living Wage Accreditation.
“We have a very strong ethos that we look after our people and that we do the right thing,” said Motion.
“We have a long and proud history of providing high-quality legal services and we have retained the status of trusted adviser – lawyers on top of their game who deliver a wide range of modern legal services, and more, with a real focus on looking after our clients.”
Balfour+Manson has real strengths across a range of different legal areas and has been involved in some high-profile cases.
Motion, an expert in human rights and civil liberties law, represented the group of families and charities who made the successful Supreme Court challenge to the Scottish Government’s Named Person Scheme in 2016. The court ruled that the proposed legislation overstepped the line drawn by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights to protect and respect private and family life.
The firm is also very strong in medical negligence and personal injury work, including their involvement in a landmark decision which saw a mother who gave birth to a child with brain damage awarded £5 million in damages.
It was hailed as the most important medical negligence case for 30 years.
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