Donna Brennan joins the Edinburgh and Glasgow firm from Weightmans to grow its central belt practice
Gibson Kerr has appointed Donna Brennan as Partner and Head of Personal Law, bringing around 30 years of legal experience to the Edinburgh and Glasgow-based firm. She joins to lead the expansion of the firm’s private client practice across Scotland’s central belt.
Donna joins from UK national law firm Weightmans, where she was a partner responsible for private client work in Scotland, and has previously held senior positions at several leading law firms. Her appointment is part of Gibson Kerr’s ambitions to strengthen its specialist private client offering, building on an established team of solicitors advising individuals and families on legal and financial decisions. She will lead the department’s development across both Edinburgh and Glasgow, with a particular focus on growing the practice and building on the expertise already within the team.
Her specialisms include estate planning, inheritance tax planning and succession planning for families and family businesses, and she is a regular speaker at legal conferences on developments affecting private client practitioners. The appointment comes at a time of change for the sector, with reforms to inheritance tax reliefs for family businesses and the treatment of pensions creating new challenges for individuals planning how to pass on their wealth.
Donna said: “What attracted me to Gibson Kerr was its focus on providing specialist advice to individuals and families. Private client work is at the heart of the business, rather than an additional service offered alongside a larger commercial practice.”
She added: “There is already an excellent team in place and I’m looking forward to building on that expertise, developing the department and expanding our presence across the central belt. We’re also seeing substantial changes to the legal and financial landscape, particularly around inheritance tax and succession planning. These developments are creating new challenges for families and business owners, making access to experienced, specialist advice more important than ever.”
Donna joins a department which has recently marked a series of professional achievements. Legal Director Sara Albizzati was awarded a STEP Excellence Award in 2026 after achieving the highest score in Scotland across the four papers required for the STEP Diploma, STEP being the international professional association for specialists in inheritance and succession planning. Senior Solicitor Briege Valentine has also successfully completed her STEP examinations. Legal Director Linsey Dagger is also STEP qualified and has practised in private client for over twenty years.
Scott Rasmusen, Managing Partner at Gibson Kerr, said: “Attracting someone of Donna’s calibre is a real statement of intent for Gibson Kerr. She has spent three decades building an outstanding reputation in private client practice and brings the experience and ambition to take an already successful department to another level.”
He added: “What makes this appointment particularly exciting is the strength and depth of the team Donna is joining. We have some exceptional legal talent within the firm, including Sara, whose STEP examination results placed her among the very best practitioners in the profession. That is a remarkable achievement and one we’re enormously proud of. With Briege also recently securing her STEP qualification, we have a team whose specialist knowledge and professional achievements are hugely impressive. Donna’s leadership will allow us to harness that expertise and realise our ambitions to grow the department across Edinburgh, Glasgow and beyond. Private client work is central to who we are as a firm. We’re not interested in simply becoming bigger for the sake of it. Our ambition is to build one of Scotland’s strongest specialist teams, ensuring that individuals and families can access exceptional legal advice when they need it most.”
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Donna will work across Gibson Kerr’s Glasgow and Edinburgh offices, supporting clients throughout the central belt and beyond. The firm said it has a heritage of more than a century and remains focused on sustainable growth while maintaining its reputation for expert advice and client care.
For more information, visit: www.gibsonkerr.co.uk.
