They were admitted as members of the Faculty by Dean of Faculty, Roddy Dunlop KC, and admitted to the public office of advocate by Lady Tait, Lord Braid, Lord Cubie, and Lord Harrower.

The new members are Mohsen Din, Danielle Clark, Garry Ferguson, Edward Cadden, Gregor McPhail, Liam Kildare, Ryan Houghton, Iain Franklin, Christopher Farrell, Florence Gibson, Tobias Seger, Miranda Cannibal, Laura-anne Langlands, Ahmed Khogali, Molly Little, Eve Gilchrist, Erin Grieve, Jillian Merchant, Alan Calderwood, Rhiannon Spear, Carolyn McPhee, Ross Fairweather, Lauren Mizen, Mitchell Abbott, Julie Fisher, Liam Smith, Poppy Mulligan, Jennifer Martinez Sillars and Iain Cahill.

Addressing the new members, Mr Dunlop said: “Since the College of Justice was founded in 1532, the Scottish bar has stood between the citizen and those who would overwhelm them – the state, the powerful institution, the well-resourced opponent. That is not romantic conceit. It is the constitutional function of the independent referral bar. The great engine that drives its function is its independence.

“You are officers of the court. You owe duties to the court and to justice that rank above those even of your client, but precisely because you are independent, instructed on behalf of the client but beholden to no one, you can stand in the courtroom and say with complete authority, here is my case, here are the arguments, now decide.

“No employer can suppress that submission. No hierarchy can moderate it. The power of the advocate’s voice comes from the fact that it belongs to nobody but the law.”