A replacement plaque was installed this morning at the base of the Melville Monument in St Andrew Square in Edinburgh.
Appointments
See all articlesCompass Chambers' Dominic Scullion has been appointed as second standing junior to the Scottish government. Craig Murray and Elaine Smith have also been appointed as standing junior counsel.
David James and Iain Halliday of Themis Advocates have been appointed to the panel of standing junior counsel to the Scottish government joining members, Julie McKinlay and Tim Haddow.
Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC has announced the appointment of Lisa Gillespie KC as deputy principal crown counsel. Ms Gillespie was admitted to the bar in 2005 and has been a full-time advocate depute since February 2014. She took silk in 2020. Ms Gillespie will support principal crown counsel Ashl
Murray Beith Murray partner and head of rural property Andrew Linehan has been appointed as vice-president of the Scottish Agricultural Arbiters and Valuers Association (SAAVA). SAAVA provides advice to valuers, arbiters, auctioneers, surveyors, solicitors, accountants and others having professional
International law firm gunnercooke has appointed Denise Laverty as a partner in its Scottish family law team. Ms Laverty is an accredited family law specialist and is dual-qualified as a solicitor in Scotland and in England and Wales. She has over 33 years' experience and a strong reputation in Scot
Simon Jones and Alison McNab have been appointed to Boundaries Scotland, the public body responsible for reviewing electoral boundaries. Mr Jones, who has been appointed as deputy chair, works on substance use strategy within Clackmannanshire and Stirling Health and Social Care Partnership and has a
Legal Aid
See all articlesThe number of criminal legal aid solicitors dropped from 1,459 in 2007 to 966, the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association (SSBA) has said as it warned the system was heading for collapse. The Scottish government's public spend on legal aid has declined by 45 per cent, allowing for inflation, over the p
The Scottish government’s 2024-25 budget continues its distorted and shortsighted approach to criminal justice, according to the Law Society of Scotland. The budget papers reveal an extra £22 million has been provided to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), while the f
The Scottish Legal Aid Board has confirmed that as at 1 June 2023 there were 975 lawyers on the Criminal Legal Aid Register, following a freedom of information request by the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association (SSBA). Of those 975, however, 238 received no payment for criminal legal aid in the year
Criminal barristers in Northern Ireland are to stage a one-day strike on Friday 17 November 2023 in an escalating dispute over delays in legal aid payments. The local Criminal Bar Association (CBA) previously balloted members on a withdrawal of services in response to “unprecedented and worsen
Scotland's legal aid system "can't cope" with demand and there is a risk of a "total collapse of justice in Scotland", a senior criminal defence lawyer has said after being unable to find counsel for a serious High Court case. Ian Moir, partner at Moir and Sweeney Litigation, tweeted on Friday that
Universities
See all articlesA monograph by Professor Alexandra Braun, of Edinburgh Law School, has been selected as one of the Law Books of the Year in the German law journal Juristen Zeitung. Claiming a Promised Inheritance: A Comparative Study examines cases where a person is promised a future inheritance
Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC has been interviewed by students at Aberdeen University for International Women's Day. Ms Bain appeared on the 100% Legal podcast, produced by the Aberdeen University Law Society, to discuss her path into the law, corroboration and other ongoing legal issues.
14 March 2024, 14:00 - 15:30 Aberdeen University is hosting a webinar with Professor Tim Dornis, Leibniz Universität Hannover, on AI and international contracts.
University of Aberdeen diploma students Ailsa Gardyne and Callum Leeson are set to represent Scotland on the international stage after winning the Scottish Client Consultation Competition. The competition, which was held at Dundee University, saw teams from four Scottish law schools take part in sim
Edinburgh Law School’s Jessup team will be representing the UK in the competition’s international rounds in Washington DC in April 2024.
And Finally
See all articlesPolice have been giving the public strange advice on car thefts. Officers in Toronto, Canada, told vehicle owners at a community meeting last month that they should make it easier for thieves to access their keys by leaving them near the front door.
Police responding to a report of dangerous driving found a 103-year-old woman with an expired driving license at the wheel of an uninsured car. Giuseppina Molinari, born in 1920, was fined and taken home by police in Italy's northern Emilia Romagna region after being pulled over in the early hours o
French train conductors receive a 10 per cent commission of fines they impose on ticketless travellers, leaked documents have revealed. The policy, which was not publicly known until it was reported in Le Parisien, has sparked fears that conductors are being incentivised to issue frivolous fines for
Rats high on cannabis are defecating freely on police officers' desks, a police chief in the US has complained. Anne Kirkpatrick, superintendent of New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), said rats have been getting into the evidence room in the force's headquarters and eating confiscated drugs, WWL-T
A pair of security guards who found a huge bag of money left behind by robbers targeting their workplace pocketed the cash and went on a spending spree – before having it taken from them by fake police officers. The bizarre chain of events began with the robbery of Quest Financial Services in