One of Scotland's leading independent accountancy firms has signed up the Oloroso restaurant co-owner and leading forensic accountant and corporate financier Frank McMorrow to lead a push into the arcane world of forensic accounting.

McMorrow, who spent 13 years at KPMG before working for a Glasgow-based independent corporate finance boutique, has joined forces with the Dundee-headquartered Scottish accountancy firm Henderson Loggie.

Over the past four years McMorrow has been working as an independent forensic accountant and as a non- executive director. He became co-owner of the Edinburgh rooftop restaurant Oloroso following a management buyout with chef and co-founder Tony Singh two years ago.

Demand for independent forensic accounting services is soaring in Scotland as the number of divorces and personal injury claims escalates. Yet the number of specialist advisers capable of providing such services is shrinking, largely because several of Scotland's best-known forensic accountants have reached retirement age. Tenon's Mike Gilbert is due to retire later this month, while Bruce Graham has already retired for PwC and is now working as a freelance.

Forensic accountants in the independent sector, as opposed to those in Big Four firms, tend to focus on civil litigation, primarily divorces and personal injury claims. They are generally pulled in by litigation lawyers who are seeking an independent valuation of the true worth of a litigant's business assets. They can be expected to produce a detailed evaluation of financial records and status to ensure a sound basis for resolution between warring parties.

But McMorrow said there is a dearth of junior talent being developed in this market. "I guess fewer people are being trained in the independent sector," he said. There is also a bit of a Catch-22 situation in the sector, as the litigation solicitors who instruct forensic accountants prefer to appoint an experienced name who already has extensive court experience. This makes it harder for junior forensic accountants to either gain court experience or build a profile.

In such a climate George Hay, Henderson Loggie's chairman, believes his firm is well placed to emerge as the leading provider of forensic accounting services in Scotland. He said: "By bringing in Frank, a senior and well-respected forensic expert, we're building on an area where we already have expertise, with our existing partner Greig Rowand already being another well-recognised name. We're also thinking long-term in terms of developing and bringing on the forensic team underneath them.

"This gives us two recognised forensic specialists, both of whom still have plenty of years in front of them. It places us very well in the forensic marketplace where we could, in time, be number one in Scotland. Together we expect they will be able to pick up a reasonable chunk of business."

Hay added that McMorrow, who started on June 1, becomes "a consultant with partner equivalent status".

Rowand will continue to do both corporate finance and forensic accounting work. Rowand and McMorrow have worked together in the past both at KPMG and at an independent corporate finance boutique.

Hay added: "Henderson Loggie certainly sees strong potential for growth in this area, as we do appear to be becoming a more litigious society."

He said forensic accounting is almost invariably used in divorce cases but also in "any commercial dispute that is likely to end up in court."

One solicitor in the field said: "It is not that an owner-manager who is going through a divorce will necessarily have hidden away assets in a tax haven or somewhere. It's more that they may have under- valued certain assets and we need an independent expert to verify this and give evidence about that in court."

McMorrow, 49, said: "I look forward to combining forces with Henderson Loggie, who I'm sure will be great people to work with. Together, I think we can forge the unrivalled forensic accounting service within the independent sector." He admits that one reason for wanting to become a consultant at Henderson Loggie was what he called the "loneliness of the long-distance sole trader". He will be based in Henderson Loggie's Edinburgh office in Melville Street.

Following its merger with Glasgow-based Sinclair Wood last December, Henderson Loggie employs 200 people and has 21 partners. The firm, founded in 1909, boosted turnover by 15.7% to £10m last year and is unusual in having a presence in Scotland's four major cities - Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. It expanded during the 1990s after taking over the bulk of the Dundee practices of both Ernst & Young and KPMG.

McMorrow said forensic accountants working in Big Four accountancy firms are not playing in the same marketplace as independents, as they tend to focus on major commercial disputes and large fraud investigations.