Our Past
The firm traces its private client roots back to the Writer (the old Scots term for a solicitor) David Bird who, in his own words:-
Commenced business as a Writer and sharebroker in office 13 John Street in May 1845. 
David’s diary paints a vivid picture of his childhood and early legal career.
David’s sons, Neilson and Robert, would later follow in his legal footsteps, and so would Robert’s son Harold Bird.
By 1869 the firm had become David Bird & Son, and by 1875 was practicing from offices at 5 Victoria Place, Glasgow. The firm later moved to 22 Renfield Street, 24 St. Vincent Place, and thence to both 36 and 58 Renfield Street.
David died on 1st May 1896. Three years later the firm, still called David Bird & Son, was practising from 71a West Nile Street, Glasgow, but by then was a partnership between David’s son, Robert and Thomas M. Semple, who had become a partner in May 1898.
The firm changed its name to Bird, Son & Semple in September 1904, a name it was to retain for the next 69 years.
By 1915 Robert’s son, Harold, had also become a partner. Robert retired at the end of 1927 and died in the spring of 1929. Thomas Semple’s son, Walter, joined the partnership in that same year. His father died, whilst still in practice, in May 1935.
Walter’s own sons, Walter and David, would in turn become partners of the firm, replicating the three generations of the Bird family before them.
In 1939 the firm moved to 223 Hope Street, Glasgow, which would be its home for the next 34 years.
Meanwhile, in 1870, William Barr Crawford had set up practice as a solicitor in Glasgow. The firm he founded developed into Crawford, Herron and Cameron, and would have only twelve partners in the first century of its existence. These twelve included the six who were partners at the time of the 1973 merger with Bird, Son & Semple!
The firm’s roots were similar to those of Bird, Son & Semple, being based primarily on private client work but with a growing corporate and industrial clientele.
In the years running up to the creation of the National Health Service after WWII, the firm secured a leading position in the purchase and sale of general medical practices, both in Scotland and south of the border.
Although such commerce did not survive the creation of the NHS, the firm’s strong medical connections carry on to the present day, with many medical partnerships and individual medical practitioners among its clients.
The firm also built up a long-standing association with the painting and decorating trade. Successive partners acted as Secretary to the Scottish Decorators Federation continuously for over 100 years.
On 17th September 1973, Bird, Son & Semple and Crawford, Herron & Cameron joined together. This was a far-sighted move to adapt to the increasing complexity of the law and the growing need for specialisation in legal practice. Both firms also considered that it was important at that time to develop the corporate and commercial side of their practices. The amalgamated practice was named Bird Semple & Crawford Herron and moved to new offices at 249 West George Street.
The new firm quickly gained a strong reputation in commercial property work and a growing one in corporate work, whilst still maintaining its strong private client roots. It also threw itself enthusiastically into the application of the emerging computer and related technologies to legal practice and soon gained a reputation in the profession for technological innovation.
With talk of devolution for Scotland in the early ‘80s, the new firm undertook a further amalgamation, with Fyfe Ireland & Co. of Edinburgh in the spring of 1987. Through this both firms sought to create a genuinely national presence that would meet the increased legal demands of a new Scottish Parliament. Sadly devolution did not come about for another decade and the new firm split, back into its constituent parts, in 1994. It was at this time that the Glasgow practice simplified its name to Bird Semple.
The 1980s and 90s have been a period of great change for the legal profession in Scotland and Bird Semple was not immune from those changes. In 1999, after much consideration, the corporate and commercial side of the practice decided that its future lay in a further large-scale amalgamation, this time with the major English firm of Dibb Lupton Alsop, now DLA and that became effective on 1st May 2000.
Since then the private client partners of Bird Semple have maintained the Firm’s unbroken and continuous commitment to serving the individual, as Bird Semple – Private Client Solicitors. In taking this step, they created a niche private client practice providing a quality service to the business and professional community of the West of Scotland.
In this, its latest incarnation, the firm has continued to make excellent progress. The original partners have since been joined by Tom Monteith, Karen Fulton, Karen Lang and Pamela Niven all able and experienced practitioners in the private client field.
In February 2003 the firm moved across Blythswood Square to its new home in attractive offices at No. 21 Blythswood Square, which provide the extra space required for the continued growth of the practice.
The continuing changes in the legal profession, outlined in the section on The Future, will no doubt bring further challenges. In meeting them, we will draw on our unbroken line of service that stretches back over 160 years. We are proud of our heritage and will extend our service vigorously into the Twenty-first Century.
