Parabis has opened its second office in Scotland after securing a five-strong defendant insurance team from Brodies to launch an Edinburgh base.

The new office, which opened yesterday (2 April), will be headed up by new partner Laurie Traynor alongside associates Stuart Mackie, Julie Fisher, Sarah Crewes and solicitor advocate James Peden.

The team will trade under the Plexus Law brand – the defendant insurance arm of Parabis Scotland.

The move comes five months after Parabis first moved into Scotland after setting up an office in Glasgow with the hire of Tony O'Malley, the former litigation head at HBJ Gateley's personal injury arm HBJ Claim Solutions, as Scotland head.

The Edinburgh launch hands Parabis its ninth office alongside London, Leeds, Manchester, Croydon, Colchester, Evesham, Liverpool and Glasgow.

"From the start the demands of our clients have driven activities," said O'Malley. "They have wanted us to grow our defendant insurance law capabilities and that is exactly what we're doing."

Plexus Law senior partner Tim Oliver said: "This is the first stage in creating a multi-disciplinary insurance practice in Scotland. Glasgow has been a great move for us. With this latest move we will have the demand, capability and reach to service general loss cases and more diverse defendant work in Scotland.

"The quality of the team we've attracted, and around which we are building our Edinburgh office, illustrates how serious we are about being here and how keen our insurance clients are to be able to work with us on both sides of the border. It's great news."

In August, Parabis received its alternative business structure licence from the Solicitors Regulation Authority, confirming a deal which saw it receive outside investment from private equity house Duke Street in return for a majority stake in the business.

Last month the firm also appointed former general insurance head at Co-operative Banking Group David Neave as a non-executive director.