Philip Thornton – Partner

Philip is the Senior Partner of Russel + Aitken and has been with the firm for over 30 years. He brings to the Board a great wealth of experience, not only in legal matters but also in company matters. He also holds a non-executive Board appointment with a national company.

Dianne Paterson – Partner

Dianne is well known in Edinburgh for her skills in the residential property market. She has sat on the Board of the ESPC (Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre) as a non-executive Director, having held this position for over six years. She has been with Russel + Aitken for over 25 years and has, during that time, been instrumental in introducing systems and processes to the firm to take account of the major changes taking place in the legal profession for the provision of legal services.

Alan Jones – Partner

Alan is Cashroom Partner within the firm. Alan is one of our Litigation partners and is also a qualified Solicitor Advocate. Alan has been with the firm for over 27 years and brings his vast experience of financial matters and cashroom systems to the Board.

Susan Mendelssohn – Partner

Susan is one of our conveyancing partners and brings to the Board her trouble shooting skills in styles and processes. Renowned for her ‘hands on’ approach to any matter, she has been instrumental in bringing about change in the conveyancing department of Russel + Aitken, to ensure greater efficiencies and, at the same time, better service to clients. She has a good working knowledge of CML regulations and a clear understanding of our lender clients’ needs and aspirations over the coming years.

Shona Black – Operations Director

Shona has been with the firm since January 2000 and has altogether more than 10 years’ experience in the provision of volume legal services to several of the UK’s leading lenders. Since joining the firm, Shona has been instrumental in the growth of RA Direct, developing the business which employed one paralegal in January 2000 completing approximately 100 cases per month to achieving almost 2,000 completions per month.