We’re excited to spotlight Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP (WJM) as our Member of the Week and to hand the blog over to them to tell their story. With a strong and growing presence in Inverness, WJM provides expert legal services across a wide range of sectors, supporting businesses, families, and individuals throughout the Highlands and beyond. Over to you WJM!
Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP (WJM) is a full-service, Scottish law firm with a history going back 170 years. From our offices across Scotland – including Inverness – we provide legal support to businesses, individuals, and families. We work across a diverse range of sectors including energy, renewables, planning, real estate, agriculture and rural business, private client, corporate, dispute resolution, and more.
Our Inverness team combines local insight with national-level expertise, ensuring a first-class service for clients across the Highlands, Islands and Moray.
Meet the team
My name is Margaret Hoisington and I have led our Inverness operation since its inception in 2011 and in the last 14 years we have grown both the team and our valued client base.
I have 27 years’ legal experience and work across several practice areas including corporate, healthcare, family business, charities, renewables, commercial contracts, and intellectual property and IT.
As a business lawyer, my role is to help clients turn their good ideas into successful and profitable business. I get to know the business and its needs, and I work with the firm’s wider team to bring them expert legal services in a joined-up way that helps them achieve their goals. I’ve also recently renewed my specialist certification in Risk Management and Governance from the Law Society of Scotland.
Reflecting a busy period of growth, WJM have bolstered our team with several appointments and promotions – bringing our clients enhanced expertise from an even wider team of experts who are at the ready to provide expert counsel.
Here’s a round-up of our most recent appointments and how our experts can help individuals and businesses in the region.
• Kathleen Waller joined the firm as a Senior Legal Director, bringing a wealth of experience in non-contentious construction contracts.
• Hannah Prentice of the private client team in Inverness is now a Partner. She specialises in wills, Trust disputes, Power of Attorney and can give guidance on tax and succession planning.
• Eilidh Campbell was promoted to Associate in the agricultural and rural property team. She has a broad range of experience advising landowners on transactions across the rural sector, including in farming and agriculture, estates and forestry.
• The Inverness team also welcomed back Hazel MacGillivray who is a Senior Paralegal widely known across the region for her expertise in the property sector
These appointments and promotions bring significant strength to our key service areas while recognising and rewarding the talents of the skilled team..
Strengthening the Business
Over the last decade, WJM has continued to expand through a series of mergers and acquisitions, with Inverness a key focus area. In 2016, we merged with MacArthur and Co, followed in 2017 by Robertson & Co, and in 2019 by Calum Duncan Corporate Lawyers.
In 2023, Irwin Mitchell invested in WJM, enabling us to provide clients with a comprehensive suite of legal and financial services across more than 20 locations in Scotland, England, and Wales. That same year, our merger with Inverness firm Macandrew & Jenkins LLP further enhanced our service offering for clients across the Highlands, Islands, and Moray.
Most recently, we joined forces with commercial law firm Davidson Chalmers Stewart, creating a combined team of more than 200 colleagues – including more than 40 Partners – and significantly strengthening our expertise in corporate, property, and commercial dispute resolution. This marked one of the most significant milestones in both firms’ history and a key step in our strategic growth plan for Scotland.
Awards and accolades
We’re proud to have recently triumphed at the 2024 Scottish Legal Awards where we scooped Private Client Team of the Year. This year we’re defending our crown as the private client team is a finalist for the 2025 awards, and the team’s Nicola McGorm is a finalist for the Rising Star award. We’re also ranked in both the Legal 500 and the Chambers and Partners High Net Worth and UK Guide legal directories.
There have also been other successes for our team with Trainee Paralegal Lee-Ann Gibson achieving her first two Pre-PEAT 1 exams on her journey to becoming a fully-qualified solicitor, demonstrating that university is not the only path into our profession; and Lori Sloggie qualifying as an executory paralegal.
That brings us to the end of Part 1 of WJM’s Member of the Week story. Come back on Wednesday for Part 2, where the team will share more about their community connections, their work with the Inverness & Cromarty Firth Green Freeport, and the value they place on Chamber membership.