Trusting in the future. The Herald, today.

MARK WILLIAMSON


A wood-panelled eyrie in the National Trust for Scotland's Georgian headquarters in Edinburgh seems an unlikely place for talk of modernity, but that is the subject that Shonaig Macpherson wants to major on when we meet there.
Two years after deciding to step down from the top job at elite law firm McGrigor Donald, much of her time is taken up with chairing the venerable trust, which she must ensure is relevant to 21st-century Scotland. And this, she insists, is definitely the case, rejecting accusations that the trust it is the preserve of middle-aged members of the middle classes with quiet authority.
"We do fantastic work that people do not expect, like working with asylum seekers at Brodick Castle (on the island of Arran) or working with deeply-disadvantaged youngsters in Lanarkshire, using the life of (missionary) David Livingstone to challenge their behaviours."
Having acquired years of experience of lawyering with and for egos as formidable as Harrod's owner Mohammed Al Fayed, Macpherson does quiet authority with practised ease.
No surprise then to find her taking questions about the recent, and sudden, departure of Robin Pellew, chief executive, after loss-making initiatives to popularise the trust through concerts in castles, in her stride. "We have a really strong senior management team. It always was my role to look to the future and to re-energise the place."
However, charges that the trust is all about castles, which her teenage sons, Hector and Finlay, have levelled at Macpherson, provoke a more passionate response. Giving vent to a lyricism not usually associated with the intellectual property law in which she decided to specialise, MacPherson reels off a list of trust assets spanning the natural splendour of Glencoe and the tenement house in Glasgow.
By raising awareness of these she hopes to persuade 170,000 people, especially youngsters, to join, to take membership of NTS to 500,000 during her five years in charge.
Shifting her gaze, metaphorically, to the other side of the world, Macpherson becomes similarly animated about modern China.
A recent trip to the country in another of her guises, chairman of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, left her agog at what she saw in the coastal megalopolis of Shanghai.
The city's leaders expect its population to double to around 40 million people within five years and want it to become the service hub for the entire Asia-Pacific region. "And it is going to happen," says Macpherson, who warns that those who continue to think of China as a place for low-value assembly work have a rude awakening coming.
"We have got to get a move on.
"We need to wake up and work out how we can partner with Chinese organisations to benefit them and us."
Challenging members to think about Scotland's place in the world is a key function of SCDI, according to Macpherson, who presided over the business organisation's annual conference yesterday.
As a member of the management committee of the Scottish Executive she will have more chance than most to ensure that officials do their share of thinking.
In yet another capacity, as chair of the holding company for Scotland's three intermediary technology institutes, Macpherson is playing a key role in the evolution of bodies set up to stimulate hi-tech economic development in the country.
Consequently, she was pleased that the work of the ITIs was recognised in a recent report by MSPs on efforts to promote business growth in Scotland, even if the SCDI chairperson in her was miffed that the politicians called for the creation of a national economic forum. Surely this is what SCDI has been for 75 years, she asks.
Notwithstanding that grumble, Macpherson shows no signs of being troubled by the tensions and challenges involved in juggling several big jobs, punctuating her comments with easy smiles.
Listening to her accounts of her younger days it seems that such self-assurance has always been a part of the Macpherson make-up.
The daughter of an Ayrshire coalface worker who put himself through mining engineering school, Macpherson decided she wanted to be a lawyer at a precociously early age.
"Boringly, I wanted to be a lawyer from the age of five. I had a cousin who was 16 years older than me who was a commercial lawyer and when I was seven or eight she was whizzing around in a sports car."
Besides filthy lucre, problem-solving had an early appeal for Macpherson, who demonstrated a singular far-sightedness by studying commercial law at Sheffield University in the 1980s, when the city was the capital of the "red republic" of South Yorkshire.
After doing time with Norton Rose, a premier-league City outfit, she joined Terence Conran's trendy Storehouse retailing operation to indulge her interest in intellectual property issues. This interest deepened after she was head-hunted to launch an in-house legal operation for the department store Harrod's for Al-Fayed.
"It was like a little town – it had 5000 employees and was a hugely complex business," recalls Macpherson, relishing the memory of work like defending the Harrod's brand.
"It was a very, very challenging experience and I learned an awful lot, not necessarily about the law."
She speaks admiringly of Al-Fayed, whom she watched working hard to rejuvenate what had become a tired operation.
"He was a very charismatic individual, who was very clever; not orthodox, so he was demanding as you would expect him to be."
While consolidating her reputation in the emerging world of IP law at Calow Easton, a niche London firm, clients included WPP, the fast-expanding advertising group run by Martin Sorrell.
"Another very demanding, highly-intelligent individual who left you with no doubt about what he expected of you."
All this was enough fun that she might never have returned to Scotland had not a much bigger law firm started eyeing Calow. The firm in question, Edge & Ellison, was run by an ambitious solicitor by the name of Digby Jones, who now heads the CBI. "I could not see how merging a fabulous boutique with a bunch of Brummies led by Digby Jones would work. I did not really fancy it."
Not one to wait for opportunity to knock, Macpherson persuaded Fred Shedden, then managing partner of McGrigor Donald, that it needed her expertise in IP. She returned to Scotland in 1990, in time for the flowering of the revolution in technology and life sciences that continues to this day.
By 1996 she had become managing partner of the Edinburgh office, the first woman to hold that post and "by some way" the youngest.
In March 2004, the then 43-year-old Macpherson had been running the firm for several years and had a long and lucrative career in front of her. Instead she stunned the legal world by deciding to walk away from McGrigor, although she had nothing else lined up.
Having taken McGrigor into the K Legal network with accounting giant KPMG in 2002 only to lead it out again in 2003, some speculated Macpherson paid the price for the union's failure.
Macpherson, however, is adamant that the move benefited McGrigors. "I don't think it was a mistake. Not many businesses with 500 people can sit alongside a company of the size and calibre of KPMG and not learn something.
"We learned huge amounts about systems and marketing, etcetera.
"It also made us confront some difficult issues about the shape of the business, in the sense of investing in the right places."
Some 18 months after leaving the firm, Macpherson still speaks highly of McGrigor, insisting she only quit because she felt 25 years in law was enough.
"I had always seen myself getting to the position where I could stop working on a full-time basis," she says, choosing her words carefully. "I'm not suggesting that lawyers are not a good thing for humankind, but having become successful to then go on and work in areas that one would not otherwise be involved in has been great. It's about putting something back."
She would not hesitate to recommend the law to young women who want to build an interesting career.
The benefits of success for which Macpherson seems appreciative include having the ability to employ a good nanny to help look after her sons.
With both now in the teenage twilight zone, Macpherson counts communicating with the boys as one of her most enjoyable challenges, and wants to spend as much time as possible with them.
After years of professional success Macpherson admits to no particular ambitions for her future, except one that might not be the first one would expect to hear from a commercial lawyer's lips.
"The same as everybody else, to leave the world a better place than you find it."

Legal requirements
What was your childhood ambition: Very sadly, to be a lawyer.
What was your best moment in business: There have been lots - helping clients of McGrigors, particularly young technology companies, achieve their own ambitions, but a special moment was negotiating the acquisition of a travel business, Cosy Coaches, for my parents in the mid-1980s.
What was your worst moment in business: It involved the family business so still being part of the family, better not go there!
What drives you: Wanting to make Scotland a better place for the next generation.
What car do you drive: Currently a Nissan Micra for reasons I don't want to elaborate on but it involves parking skills!