Burness Paull LLP
An 'all-round excellent team' of transport specialists, Burness Paull LLP offers a ‘broad range of experience’ acting on high-value, complex and niche projects across the gamut of key transport sectors, including ports, roads and bridges, shipping, aviation and logistics. With Chris MacKay retiring in January 2023, Andrew Little, who was promoted to partner in August 2022, now leads the team; he brings strong expertise in ports and harbours.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Burness Paull has a deep knowledge of the industry and an unbeatable experience in court.'
- 'Andrew Little is a great lawyer, very easy going and accessible, always ready to provide first-class advice.'
- 'An all-round excellent team with a broad range of experience. Able to provide concise, clear advice which dovetails sound legal knowledge with a commercial pragmatism which, as a client, is entirely what we look for in a law firm.'
- 'Whilst they are clearly very busy, the service remains exceptionally good.'
- 'Andrew Forsyth is an excellent lawyer - he obviously has a wealth of legal knowledge, but is able to understand and appreciate the commercial realities that we face. That overriding pragmatism is a theme that carries down throughout his team and is highly appreciated by us as an organisation.'
- 'Rather than focusing on the potential minutiae of a legal point, Andrew Forsyth and his team appreciate that we, as an organisation, also have to consider the wider perspective.'
- 'They are always a pleasure to work with and can be thoroughly relied upon to put forward our position to the best of their ability.'
Key clients
- Port of Cromarty Firth
- Fraserburgh Harbour Commissioners
- Van Oord UK Limited
- Highland Spring Limited
- The Republic of Cyprus
- Plug AS/Plug Shore Power Ltd
- South Lanarkshire Council
- Lonham and its insured Colin Lawson Transport
- CalMac Ferries
- Scottish Futures Trust
Work highlights
- Acted for Port of Cromarty Forth in connection with the £31m Phase 4 Development of Invergordon Service Base, and c. £150m Phase 5 plans to expand capabilities to cater for exceptional demand from the renewables sector.
- Advised the German infrastructure investor, DWS, on the Scottish aspects of its £595m takeover of Stagecoach, which was listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.
- Acted for Van Oord UK Limited in relation to its involvement in the £400m Aberdeen Harbour Expansion Project as soft dredging sub-contractor to the project’s main contractor, Dragados UK Limited, including seven adjudications and several related Court of Session actions, including a claim for payment, adjudication enforcement and recovery of documents.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Andrew Little