David Bartos

Prior to his time with the commission, he ran a busy practice acting in a variety of litigations covering commercial law contract work and property litigation practice. His extensive practice has included appearances in the Supreme Court, Inner House, Upper and First-tier Tribunals, the Lands Tribunal, Employment Tribunals and the Sheriff Court. He is well known for his mediation and arbitration experience, and he will be available for instruction in those disciplines.

Mr Bartos is a specialist in commercial lease disputes. His experience includes rent review, notice-validity, irritancy, dilapidations, and tenancy of shops claims. From 2020 to 2025 he was the Scottish law commissioner leading the projects on the termination of commercial leases – which has led to the Leases (Automatic Continuation etc) (Scotland) Bill, and on the Tenancy of Shops (Scotland) Act. 

He has also acted as an arbitral-tribunal appointed expert on a rent review clause. His lease expertise extends beyond the commercial sphere. In the residential sector he chaired tribunals from the First-tier Tribunal’s Housing and Property Chamber from 2010 to 2020. He has also advised on agricultural leases, particularly for farming partnerships and inheritance and valuation of crofts.

Commercial work has also included partnership-related disputes (e.g. partnership break-down and termination), insolvency (e.g. disputes over assets covered by insolvency, insolvency practitioners’ adjudications etc), and sale of machinery, vehicles or services. Mr Bartos has also observed on how Scots law deals with digital assets such as cryptocurrency and commented on proposed reforms.

He has dealt with many complex property-related disputes extending from purchaser/seller disputes over commercial missives, access and water supply rights (e.g. servitudes), to neighbour disputes involving development (e.g. real burden or nuisance) and over boundaries (including rectification of titles). He has advised on rating valuation and council tax liability.

Mr Bartos is keenly interested in arbitration. A fellow of the CIArb and co-author of “Dundas & Bartos on the Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010” (2 Edns), he has acted as arbitrator of commercial disputes. He has arbitrated holiday travel arbitrations since 2019 and is on the ABTA Panel of arbitrators.

Before he joined the Law Commission in 2020, the Legal 500 described him as “approachable, communicative and knowledgeable” and “incisive and conscientious”.

Andrew Sutherland, practice manager at Arnot Manderson Advocates, said: “David is a highly regarded and very senior junior advocate and the stable will undoubtedly benefit from the return to practice of someone of his experience and expertise. We are delighted the David has chosen to resume his career with Arnot Manderson and we are certain that he will make an extremely valuable contribution to the stable and in particular to our well-established group of commercial practitioners.”