We are geographically diverse and work in some strong sectors such as energy

WE MEET in Old Bailey, not among m'learned friends, jurors and those being tried for their misdemeanours, but in a second floor office in the street which lends its name to the Central Criminal Court.

A few doors from its famous neighbour is the London home of Scottish commercial law firm McGrigors, which has set itself some ambitious targets, not least of which is a desire to be a little less Scottish.

Richard Masters is the latest incumbent in the post of managing partner of a firm which last year reported turnover of £60m, largely on the back of a lively energy market. With McGrigor's financial year closing at the end of this month he will report that it is making progress towards raising that figure to £100m over the next three years.

"But our strategy is not just about turnover, it's about repositioning the firm," he says. "We are proud to be a Scottish firm and our Scottish business will continue to grow, but we need to be properly recognised as a national player."

With three offices in Scotland and others in Manchester and Belfast, he says McGrigors is the only law firm active in all three UK jurisdictions, giving it an advantage over its rivals that he intends putting to purposeful use. He acknowledges that it will be difficult to know precisely when it has achieved "national" status but it may be when clients no longer refer to McGrigors as a "Scottish" law firm. It's a tough call, but a challenge he savours.

"We are delivering about 35% of our revenue out of London and in three years time we want that to be closer to 50%," he says, stressing that this will not be at the expense of growth in Scotland even though everybody knows there is only so much work to go round north of the border.

He believes the growth targets are realistic and achievable in the time frame and says much of the expansion will come from the energy sector. "We are not just plucking numbers out of the air. These are figures we are confident we can hit. Clearly current conditions don't help but our focus on energy should help."

Oil and gas and the renewables sector have added hugely to the firm's top and bottom line this year and show few signs of tailing off. More investment will be pumped into renewables and even a fall in the oil price is unlikely to see much slowing of the current turbo-charged activity in the North Sea.

Nor has there been any noticeable impact from the general slowdown in the economy.

"We shouldn't beat ourselves up about the economy. It looks like it will be more difficult in the coming months but I am not disheartened," he insists.

But don't lawyers always win, whether boom or bust? "No," he says, firmly. "It depends on the shape of your business. We are geographically diverse and we are working in some strong sectors such as energy."

The firm bolstered its role in the energy market two years ago when it opened in Aberdeen after acquiring the oil and gas team at Ledingham Chalmers. Last month, as a statement of its intentions down south, Masters led the acquisition of the litigation and property teams of London firm Reid Minty. The deal also solidified its long-held presence in litigation services – focusing on such issues as contractual disputes and unpaid bills – which is likely to be a growth area as the economy weakens.

Masters wants to acquire more firms or teams within firms. Last year there were rumours of a merger with Eversheds which was said to be keen to find a Scottish partner. McGrigors said at the time that talks with Eversheds only concerned referrals. However, sources in the sector reckon that to achieve the scale and credibility in the City to which it aspires may require Masters to find a merger partner among the leading London firms. He will only say that there are currently no discussions with anyone.

Masters grew up in Lisburn outside Belfast and has lived in Scotland since studying law at Strathclyde University. He is the first non-Scot to hold the position of managing partner at McGrigors and at 43 is one of the youngest to be elected to the job at any law firm. Even so, he has been a transactional lawyer for the best part of 20 years, and believes the skills he has acquired have set him up to lead the firm for a minimum three-year fixed term with the possibility of a further three years to follow. He continues to live in Scotland and spends a couple of days a week in London. When he's not working he takes to the sea in his sports boat moored in Largs or follows the Scotland rugby team. But the day job is likely to stretch his available time, particularly as McGrigors pushes its expansion strategy. It has 200 staff in its London offices alone among almost 700 in total. The Reid Minty deal means 24 of the 80 partners are in London.

However, the growth path is littered with obstacles and there have been redundancies and departures among senior staff. Nine in the London office, mainly in the slump-hit property team, were made redundant earlier in the summer. When his second term was up in March, Masters' predecessor, Colin Gray, opted to leave the firm for a fee-earning role at Eversheds. He was joined there by banking partner Colin McKay, who was beaten by Masters in the leadership election. Martin Finnegan, the head of capital markets, joined Nabarro. Masters regrets that the departures seemed to come at once but says they were unrelated and part of the natural churn of staff which has become more common in law firms. Sources, however, say it is symptomatic of the firm's attempts at establishing a London presence, with bigger rivals always likely to poach star performers.

It suffered a string of exits last year, including national IP/IT head Catrin Turner and her team of three associates, who left to join Pinsents. The London office also lost banking and finance partner Stuart Brinkworth to SJ Berwin and in the same month barrister Jonathan Fisher QC joined 23 Essex Street. One leading recruitment consultant said at the time that McGrigors could find it "more difficult to retain what it has in London if it doesn't grow."

If Masters has a fight on his hands he hopes he can win it by focusing on McGrigors' strengths, and he is hoping the appetite for deals improves so the firm can build on a steady stream of M&A work and listings. It has done three flotations on the Alternative Investment Market this year, all in the energy sector, which puts the firm close to the top of the table, though the last was in March, an indication of the slowdown in activity.

Masters says no one knows if the markets have hit the bottom and agrees that establishing value is an issue. "But people will need to start selling to free up cash." He is also awaiting details of the Scottish Futures Trust, the successor to the Private Finance Initiative, which has been a good source of income for the advisory sector.

Whatever shape the future takes, it is unlikely to see McGrigors join forces with an accountancy firm as it did in 2002 when the fashion for such mergers saw its London business merge with KPMG's tied law firm KLegal. The partnership disintegrated mainly because of the growing regulatory pressures that made it impractical to share clients. The firm retains a close working relationship with KPMG and has benefited from the two-year experience, but a formal tie of this sort is now off limits despite new moves to encourage multi-disciplinary practices. "KLegal gave us a step change in the business. We came out of it with a much stronger offering," says Masters. "It's likely we will see law firms bringing in other specialists such as surveyors, but it unlikely that there will be any big tie-ups of that sort."