New Generation Lawyers (NGL) will be campaigning for a sustainable legal aid system, encouraging diversity within the criminal bar and providing a network for lawyers beginning their career in criminal law.

NGL believes that the current funding model does not allow firms to offer a career structure for newly qualified criminal solicitors and that the nature and demands of the job are detrimental to solicitors’ wellbeing and incompatible with a healthy work/life balance.

The founding members of NGL are Gemma Elder (The Robert Kerr Partnership), Lauren Ram Sangray (MTM Defence), Kevin Corr (Graham Walker Solicitors), Matthew McGovern (McGovern Reid), Heather Morrison (Paterson Bell), Maureen Duffy (University of Strathclyde graduate) and Connor Ledger (University of Glasgow graduate).

Mr McGovern said: “I’m delighted to be part of this new group and look forward to ensuring that the voices of new and aspiring criminal lawyers are heard during the ongoing debate about the sustainability of criminal legal aid.

“An independent and diverse criminal bar is an essential pillar of any democratic society and we are in danger of losing this vital component of our democracy. The Scottish Government and the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) are complacent about the consequences that their policy will have on the sustainability of criminal legal aid in the medium term. We will be looking to meet with both SLAB and the Law Society of Scotland to discuss our concerns in more detail.”

The group can be contacted by email (newgenerationlawyers.scot@gmail.com) or on Twitter (@NGLawyers).