Christine McKay & Laura Brennen (Harper Macleod) - Attracting and Retaining staff. 
Laura is a senior solicitor in our Employment team. She advises both employer and employee clients on a wide range of contentious and non-continuous employment issues including discrimination issues, unfair dismissal, redundancy situations and settlement agreements.
Laura has experience providing practical legal advice to employer clients on disciplinary and grievance processes. She also regularly drafts and revises HR documentation such as contracts of employment, staff handbooks and HR policies and procedures.
Laura provides pragmatic and client-focused advice to achieve the best outcome for every client, whether that is an individual or a large company.
 
Gavin Brown & Jackie Watson (Wylie & Bisset) - Profitable Practice: 
An accountant led talk on numbers and the metrics that firms should be looking at along with some hints and tips on good financial management
Gavin works extensively with private clients and owner-managed businesses on an array of taxes. He has significant experience in advising individuals on Trusts, Inheritance Tax and Capital Gains Tax; providing tailored advice unique to each person’s circumstances, including future plans and requirements. Gavin is also comfortable traversing all UK tax residency issues encountered when individuals are arriving or departing the UK. When working with business owners, Gavin ensures their overall position is being run as tax efficiently as possible, by providing advice on day-to-day tax savings, as well as advising on restructuring and succession planning. Gavin has been a part of the W&B tax team for more than 10 years, after joining as a graduate and progressing to Senior Manager.
Jackie is an ACCA qualified accountant who came to her last love of her life careerwise via a Law degree and a stint in managing pubs.
She is passionate about all things in the world of Cloud accountancy and has experience in all areas of accountancy. Having done her training at Grant Thornton, she has also worked in small accountancy firms as well as a brief spell in a multi- national drilling company as a financial controller. 
In her spare time you can find her enjoying a cold glass of pinot, watching her football team and indulging in her passion for giraffes, obviously not all at the same time!
Her ethos to what she does is always to remember the people behind the numbers!

Stephen Vallance (Harper Macleod) - The B to D of Business Development (BD)
In this session Stephen Vallance will look at several of the ways that firms do and can develop robust BD strategies from ‘B’irdies on the golf course to ‘D’igital marketing and beyond. He will also give some practical guidance on how to monitor if you strategies are successful and whether your investment in BD is giving you an acceptable return.
Stephen works within the HM Connect team and in particular is responsible for the operation in the West of Scotland. He is actively involved in developing existing relationship with member firms and fostering new connections with firms interested in learning more about the benefits that HM Connect can offer them.
 
Stephen is currently the Dean of the RFPG. He also sits on the board of 2 charitable trusts.
Stephen has over 30 years’ experience in legal practice. A partner previously in several law firms, he successfully sold his own practice in 2008. Since then Stephen has taught on the Diploma in Legal Practice at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities as well as having been a producer and presenter of PEAT 2 seminars. He is the author of several Journal articles, as well as a convener and speaker at Law Society seminars.
He has also been involved in several other projects including on line automation of legal processes, internet and social media marketing and a new business start-up.
 
Originally Recorded 16.3.24
CPD Time 3.5 Hours