Dundas & Wilson is set to take a 12-strong team from Semple Fraser as Scots rivals continue to pick up lawyers from the collapsed firm.

Six former Semple real estate and dispute resolution partners have made the move to Dundas, including real estate head Elspeth Carson, who joins as a partner in Edinburgh.

The remaining five Semple partners – all of whom will join Dundas' Edinburgh base as consultants – are real estate specialists Angus MacRae and Margaret McLean, litigators Alison Gow and Kenneth Carruthers and commercial property specialist Ewan Thomson.

Thomson will spend much of his time in Dundas's London office, where he will work with Semple's English client base.

The firm has also has also made offers to six Semple fee earners at assistant, associate and senior associate level, as well as making arrangements to ensure that five Semple trainees will be able to complete their training contracts.

Dundas joint managing partner Allan Wernham (pictured) said: "We see these hires as building on our strong reputation in real estate and litigation while also playing to our strengths in London, giving the firm a good boost. We decided it was the right move because of its strategic alignment, and we would have looked at these partners anyway if we had known they were available.

"Trainees are the future lifeblood of the legal profession and we take our responsibility to training very seriously. We felt it was part of our responsibility to ensure their training contracts were honoured so have gladly retained all five in Edinburgh."

Other firms to have taken on former Semple partners include Maclay Murray & Spens and Weightmans, which have taken seven and three-partner teams respectively.

Five of the seven Semple partners recruited by MMS are joining the partnership, while two – Anju Suneja and Jo Campbell-Smith – have become directors at their new firm.

Of the remaining Semple partners, Scott Kerr has joined McClure Naismith in Edinburgh, finance specialist Alex Innes has moved to Anderson Strathern, and planning lawyer June Gilles has gone to Edinburgh's Davidson Chalmers.

The break-up of the firm comes after Semple announced earlier this month that it had filed notice of intention to appoint an administrator, after being hit hard by the downturn and a drop-off in work in its key areas of corporate, property and construction. RSM Tenon was subsequently appointed as administrator.