Alex Hutcheon & Co’s Buchan Hire Lasted 195 Days

Andrew Bruce lasted 195 days as a director of Alex Hutcheon and Company Limited after the Aberdeen firm named him a partner to grow its presence in Buchan. The June 2024 announcement also promoted Adrian Hutcheon, the owner’s son, and listed expansion in Peterhead, Fraserburgh and Ellon.

Companies House now shows a different board. Bruce is gone, Adrian holds between 25 and 50 percent of the company, and commercial work is led by a lawyer who came back from Burness Paull.

Two Partners, Three Towns, One Press Release

Alex Hutcheon + Co Solicitors used its 25th year to advertise a northern push. The firm, founded in 1999 and trading from Union Street as The Mortgage + Property Centre, said it wanted more commercial clients and a wider North-east footprint.

Peterhead-born Bruce, who joined that month, brought more than 18 years in residential and commercial property across Aberdeenshire, plus corporate work and liquor licensing. He would split his time between Peterhead and Aberdeen, the firm said, with a brief to win new business across Buchan.

Adrian Hutcheon had been at the practice since leaving school, taking a full-time role after a First Class Honours degree in Scots Law from the University of Aberdeen in 2021. He then took the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice and finished a two-year traineeship in-house, working in private client, estate agency, property deals and executry.

When the firm announced the two partner appointments in June 2024, senior partner Alex Hutcheon framed them as a push into key divisions and new geography. “These appointments demonstrate our commitment to achieving further growth by strengthening our firm in key divisions and growing our geographical presence,” he said.

Both men, the announcement added, would help grow the commercial client book alongside plans in Peterhead, Fraserburgh and Ellon. Bruce’s licensing skill sat next to a live local rulebook. The Aberdeenshire Licensing Board’s 2023-2028 policy recorded, for the first time under the 2005 Act, overprovision for off-sale premises in certain settlements.

Companies House Dates Bruce’s Exit

The press release named two new partners. The register for Alex Hutcheon and Company Limited, company number SC713377, shows a wider board shuffle on the same day.

The limited company was incorporated on 27 October 2021 and filed dormant accounts to 31 October 2023. On 11 June 2024 it allotted shares taking capital to £100 and appointed three directors: Adrian Alexander Hutcheon, Andrew Buchan Bruce and Fayona Ann Gordon. Alexander Buchan Hutcheon, the founder, had been a director since incorporation.

Seven days later the registered office moved from 5 Carden Place to 248 Union Street, the firm’s trading address. Adrian was notified the same June day as a person with significant control, with 25 to 50 percent of shares and votes. His father kept 50 to 75 percent and the right to appoint and remove directors.

THE JUNE 2024 BOARD, AND WHO IS STILL ON IT

Gordon left the board after 170 days. Bruce resigned as a director on 23 December 2024. The company now lists five officers and two resignations, leaving three active directors. Gordon’s exit is a board filing only; it does not, by itself, say she left the practice.

Why the Peterhead Hire Went Home

Raeburn Christie Clark & Wallace announced on 15 January 2025 that Bruce was back as an associate in a senior property role, after a brief spell with another local solicitor. His only Scottish company directorship in that window was at Hutcheon’s limited company.

Bruce, born and raised in Peterhead, had been a partner at Masson & Glennie before first joining Raeburns in 2021. He still lives in the town. The returning role covers residential property there plus commercial work, including rural and agricultural deals. He came back as an associate, not a partner.

Managing partner Callum McDonald did not name the intervening firm. He did say why Bruce matters in Buchan, and who already holds the northern branch.

Andrew’s departure last year was a big disappointment to the board, and we are delighted that he has agreed to return to us. As a local ‘loon’ he is well liked by our clients in the area and he works well with branch partner Jamie Nixon to provide what we think is the best property service north of Aberdeen.

Callum McDonald, managing partner, Raeburn Christie Clark & Wallace

Bruce said he was delighted to be back and looked forward to serving old and new clients. The hire Hutcheon had billed as a Buchan opener went home to a practice that already claimed the property service north of Aberdeen.

Weekly most-viewed lists from the Aberdeen Solicitors’ Property Centre still featured Hutcheon houses in the city through 2025, often on the same slips as Raeburn Christie. The public trail is Aberdeen residential stock, not a new Peterhead shopfront.

Adrian Hutcheon Now Holds 25 to 50 Percent

The appointment that did stick was the family one. In August 2021, after Adrian took a first at the same university his father finished in 1976, Alex Hutcheon said he was delighted his son would follow him into the firm. Adrian had already worked there in estate agency, conveyancing, wills, executries and powers of attorney.

The 2021 note put the family business at 22 years in the heart of Aberdeen. Three years later the limited company made Adrian a director and a 25 to 50 percent controller on the same day Bruce joined the board. That equity remains. Bruce’s did not appear on the public PSC list at all.

Adrian was born in June 1999. By the 2024 announcement he had been around the office since school, then as a graduate, trainee and partner. He now speaks for the firm as a director on commercial hiring. The succession the 2021 graduation note described is the part of the 2024 bet that is still on the register.

Burness Paull Experience Comes Back In-House

On 13 May 2026 the company allotted shares taking capital to £125. Five days later, on 18 May 2026, Tyler Mason McCraw became a director, tasked with overseeing an expanding commercial and corporate division.

It is a return. McCraw first joined Alex Hutcheon & Company in 2020 as a legal and property assistant. He took a First in Law from Robert Gordon University in 2021 and a Distinction in the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice the following year, then trained at Burness Paull on commercial property. After qualifying he worked on complex property issues for renewable energy schemes.

WHAT MCCRAW BRINGS BACK

• Early years: Legal and property assistant at the Union Street firm from 2020, plus estate agency and residential and commercial conveyancing.
• National-firm training: Traineeship at Burness Paull across commercial real estate, banking and funds, and energy, including onshore wind, battery storage and carbon capture work.
• In-house stint: A six-month secondment to Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation) in London on corporate and commercial operations.
• The brief now: Director over the commercial and corporate division the firm says is already busy.

His staff page also records energy-focused property for renewable projects. That is a different commercial bet from liquor licensing and a Peterhead diary. It points at North-east energy work that can be run from Aberdeen without a Buchan brass plate.

The commercial and corporate division is an area of strong growth for us, and we already service a high volume of work in this sector. Tyler brings with him a strong grounding and an approach that complements the firm’s ethos and having previously worked with us, is well placed to hit the ground running.

Adrian Hutcheon, director, Alex Hutcheon + Co

McCraw said the firm had always held a special place for him and that it was rewarding to come back at a senior level. “The company has an ambitious growth strategy and clear vision for the future, which makes this a hugely exciting opportunity and time to be rejoining,” he said. He is, like Adrian, a 1999 birth. The commercial book now sits with two directors in their twenties, under a founder born in 1955.

Thorntons Absorbed a Six-Person Aberdeen Team

Hutcheon’s wager is running while larger independents buy scale in the same city. On 1 October 2025, Patience and Buchan’s two partners, Lorna Buchan and Ashley Simpson, and four employees transferred to Thorntons, a six-person move that gave Thorntons its first permanent office in Aberdeen. Thorntons said the merged business would have more than 580 staff and 79 partners.

That is the other North-east model: a long-run independent folded into a national Scottish firm, keeping a Golden Square team under a bigger name. Hutcheon went the other way, promoting family, hiring a local partner, then replacing the geographic hire with a returning energy lawyer.

THE BET, FILING BY FILING

1. 1999: Alex Hutcheon founds the Aberdeen practice that later trades as The Mortgage + Property Centre.
2. 27 October 2021: Alex Hutcheon and Company Limited is incorporated, with Alexander Buchan Hutcheon as director.
3. 11 June 2024: Adrian Hutcheon, Andrew Bruce and Fayona Gordon become directors; share capital is £100; Adrian is notified as a 25 to 50 percent controller.
4. 18 June 2024: Registered office moves to 248 Union Street.
5. 28 November 2024: Fayona Gordon resigns as a director.
6. 23 December 2024: Andrew Bruce resigns as a director, 195 days after appointment.
7. 15 January 2025: Raeburn Christie Clark & Wallace presents Bruce’s return as an associate, working with Peterhead branch partner Jamie Nixon.
8. 1 October 2025: Patience and Buchan transfers into Thorntons in Aberdeen.
9. 13 May 2026: Share capital rises to £125.
10. 18 May 2026: Tyler McCraw is appointed director of the commercial and corporate division.

Addleshaw Goddard, which already has Aberdeen among its Scottish offices, separately reported 17 percent Scottish revenue growth in its latest year. The money in the city is concentrating. A 11-50 person Union Street practice is choosing organic returnees over a merger of its own.

The Listed Office Is Still on Union Street

The 2024 notice promised expansion in Peterhead, Fraserburgh and Ellon. Searches of the company’s own site, its Companies House file and staff listings still produce one office: 248 Union Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1TN. LinkedIn names that address as headquarters and puts headcount in the 11-50 band, with 17 people listed on the company page.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The board: Three active directors, Alexander Hutcheon, Adrian Hutcheon and Tyler McCraw, with two 2024 resignations on file.
• The equity: The founder holds 50 to 75 percent; his son holds 25 to 50 percent; capital last rose to £125 in May 2026.
• The address: The limited company files from 248 Union Street and has not registered a Peterhead, Fraserburgh or Ellon office.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Coastal rooms: Whether the firm still plans staffed space in the three named towns, or covers Buchan from Aberdeen.
• McCraw’s shares: Whether the May 2026 allotment issued equity to the new director; he is not on the public PSC list.
• Gordon’s role: Whether the November 2024 board resignation changed her day-to-day work at the practice.

The June 2024 bet was a Peterhead partner, three coastal towns and a fatter commercial book. The partner lasted 195 days and went back to the firm that already staffs north of Aberdeen. The commercial brief passed to a Burness Paull returnee with renewable-energy property on his file. The company still files from 248 Union Street. Peterhead, Fraserburgh and Ellon do not appear as registered offices.