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A former government employee has been jailed and placed on the sex offenders register after taking surreptitious videos and photographs up women's skirts. Thomas Neil Trotter, 54, a former senior press officer in the Scottish Government, pled guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court to filming the genitals

Derek Stillie This week's SLN Spotlight falls on Derek Stillie, an experienced commercial litigator and disputes lawyer, as well as former professional footballer, who recently joined Brodies LLP.

James Wolffe QC Offering protection to people fleeing persecution may be difficult, but it must be done, the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates declared in opening a conference to raise awareness of an important piece of asylum legislation.

The Eurodevils with Stephen O’Rourke, front centre, and, to his right, Charles Mullin of the European Lawyers Association  

A vital piece of asylum legislation will be highlighted at a major Faculty of Advocates-sponsored event, as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Scottish Refugee Council. The 1951 Refugee Convention, at article 31 (1), can in stipulated circumstances provide a defence for refugees agains

A number of legal figures have called for clarity on how anyone who assists a loved one to die will be dealt with by the law, calling the current situation “shameful”. The letter, signed by 21 academics, is being sent to the Scottish parliament’s health and sport committee this week and urges

Scottish legal business DWF is opening an office in Dubai to support its clients across the construction, energy, insurance and transport sectors in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This will be the firm’s first office outside of the UK and Ireland.

Pressure is mounting on Scottish ministers to scrap a law meant to give patients a legal guarantee of speedy NHS treatment following news it has been flouted in a significant number of cases. The Treatment of Time Guarantee came into force in 2012 as part of the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011, w

Scottish lawyer Helena Kennedy QC (pictured) has presented a programme for BBC Radio 4 entitled A Modern Magna Carta in which she attempts to design a Magna Carta for today's globalised world. The original charter sought to control the power of the king, but in a fluid world without borders, much po

Terra Firma Chambers has been hailed as a ‘highly acclaimed stable’ in the latest edition of Chambers & Partners UK Bar Guide 2026, which launched yesterday. The stable has retained Band 1 rankings across core practice areas: Agriculture & Rural Affairs; Planning and Environmenta

Small scale, unsubsidised, borne along on a wave of bookish enthusiasm, the ‘Writing Worth Reading’ cluster of 12 events at the Royal Scots Club can hardly be described as a competitor to the big literary beast which, not long past, was licking its wounds in a venue oddly described as th

Choices, choices, always choices. On February 25th it was between an event in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall marking the third anniversary of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, or a ‘Gray Day’ in Glasgow’s Oran Mohr marking the 90th anniversary of the birth of the Scotland&r

A new book aiming to restore India's place in the ancient world is a treasure trove of insight and anecdote, writes Kapil Summan. On 1 September 1783, the 24-gun man o' war HMS Crocodile arrived in Madras. A Porcupine-class warship late of the British defeat in America, its most precious asset was t

David J Black traces the origins of a scandal in plain sight and calls for a judge-led inquiry in part three of his series on the continued plight of ME/CFS sufferers. See also parts one and two. It is doubtless commendable to provide an ill or disabled person with fulfilling work, though hopefully

When we think of prisoner of wars (POWs), we probably think of British prisoners with the images that recall the impenetrable fortress of Colditz and statements that “for you the war is over” in the Great Escape. Both dramatise events with their focus on British escape stories where the