It is full steam ahead at semple fraser as commercial property partners Roger Clarke and Joanna Campbell-Smith launch a new legal team aimed at further growing the firm’s nationwide capabilities in the commercial property sector. Here they talk about their ambitious plans which will see the firm’s impressive growth continue apace.

A lot has happened in Semple Fraser since it was established over 16 years ago. This highly successful and respected firm has made huge strides forward from its modest beginnings to become a major presence on the Scottish commercial law scene. Indeed, over recent years, from its offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow, they have set themselves much wider horizons, with a significant proportion of its fee income now coming from UK-wide business.
The engine-house of this growth has been their skilled and experienced commercial property teams who have forged a first class reputation in the market place, being recognised as one of the largest specialist firms in Scotland, in terms of both the volume and value of their property transactions.
Roger Clarke and Joanna Campbell-Smith, two of the Property Partners in the Glasgow office, have been an integral part of this growth story and now they have been handed the baton for the next leg of the journey. Until recently Clarke and Campbell-Smith were part of the team leading Semple Fraser’s UK law effort. Such has been the growth in that area – about 80% of that team’s effort is focussed on the English investment and development market – that they have now been given the challenge of creating and leading a new team which will further expand the firm’s commercial property capability. It’s a formula that has served the firm well: split off an element of a successful team and build larger overall scale around that new nucleus. The same approach was used only a few months ago when the firm quickly and successfully established a new team in Edinburgh under Elspeth Carson, Commercial Property Group Head.
So what credentials and experience do Clarke and Campbell-Smith bring to this leadership challenge?
Clarke worked in London for 12 years before joining Semple Fraser as a partner designate in 2004. Following the firm’s conversion to a Multi-National Practice, he became a Registered Foreign Lawyer with the Law Society of Scotland and a full partner of Semple Fraser. Clarke comments: “When I was given the opportunity to help spearhead the firm’s drive south of the border, I could clearly see the attractions of lending my experience to an enthusiastic, talented and ambitious partnership who wanted to replicate their success in the Scottish property market throughout the rest of the UK. In making the move out of London, I was confident that the firm could make a success of the strategy, but even I have been pleasantly surprised at how quickly it has developed a significant cross-border practice, which is growing ever stronger.”
Clarke is referring to the scale of the property transactions the firm deals with year on year. A key statistic is the £3 billion of retail assets throughout the UK where the firm has been involved in either the sale or acquisition.
Clarke goes on to comment: “There are many firms in England who would be very pleased with the quality, volume and nature of the Semple Fraser commercial property offer in England. From my perspective it has been a very positive experience and I have certainly not found a move away from London has in any way equated to a drop in the quality of work colleagues or the profile, value and variety of work that I had been exposed to previously.”
Clarke is supported at partner level by Campbell-Smith who joined the firm in 2001, having also previously practised in England for a number of years. She is English qualified but she also qualified in Scotland after joining Semple Fraser, putting this into practice working with a number of high-profile clients. As the English law effort has grown, she has become increasingly involved on a wide range of high value, flagship transactions. Her assumption to partnership in 2006 was a further demonstration of the firm’s commitment to building its English law handling skills.
The firm has established an impressive client base. This includes The British Land Company PLC, Land Securities Group PLC, Kenmore Group, Royal & Sun Alliance, Scottish TV and Tesco Stores Ltd, the firm’s biggest client.
Clarke and Campbell-Smith point to two main reasons for the firm’s success in building its client list. Firstly, the quality, commercial focus and industry understanding of the people who are providing a service to clients. Secondly, the firm’s strategy of making life easy for clients by providing one-stop access to an impressive array of specialist services, enabling it to provide a fully integrated property offering, covering every angle from tax and funding to planning, construction and environmental issues.
Also part of the new team is Mark Sabey, who joined at assistant level earlier this year, having previously been part of the Shoosmith’s commercial property team in Reading. With English business now accounting for well over 20% of the firm’s income and plans to grow that to at least 50%, Sabey is one of an increasing number of English qualified lawyers joining Semple Fraser to progress their career.
Clarke and Campbell-Smith have now started in earnest the task of adding to the team by recruiting English qualified solicitors at various levels. Although the team is presently wholly English qualified, their objective is to create another team which will eventually be skilled throughout the UK. In addition to these requirements, the growth across all of the firm’s commercial property teams in both Glasgow and Edinburgh has created additional opportunities at all levels for Scottish qualified solicitors.
Clarke and Campbell-Smith are relishing the challenge ahead of them. Clarke sums up the situation as follows: “We have the best possible foundations for building another new team. Firstly, there’s our well-earned reputation in commercial property which has been built on an impressive array of high value transactions – great career building stuff. On top of that, my experience of Semple Fraser is that it is a great place to work; contribution is very well rewarded and the focus on training and development is first class.”

To discuss opportunities available at Semple Fraser for English and Scottish qualified commercial property solicitors at all levels please contact Roger Clarke on 0141 270 2291
or email roger.clarke@semplefraser.co.uk.
Alternatively, contact Ian Anderson, HR Director, on
0141 272 2532 or email ian.anderson@semplefraser.co.uk.