Margaret Taylor

As the year comes to a close with Christmas all but cancelled, it is hard to imagine that any good has come from Covid-19. For Morton Fraser partner David Hossack, however, one positive to come out of the coronavirus pandemic is that it has helped to highlight the role mediation can play in the reso

When a school teacher told the teenage Iain Smith he should downgrade his ambition to become a lawyer and focus on becoming a paralegal instead, it could have gone one of two ways: he could have thrown in the towel there and then or he could have resolved to work harder than ever to prove it was the

Criminal defence work may be a tough gig, but for an aspiring writer of crime fiction it has one key draw: it throws up a huge amount of material to work from. Indeed, when Russel & Aitken partner William McIntyre decided to turn his hand to novel writing a little over a decade ago he found he h

Much has been said about the plight of criminal defence lawyers in recent years, from the inadequacy of legal aid fees to the impracticality of working hours. Almost all of it has been from the point of view of practitioners with decades of experience in the sector, though. McGovern Reid solicitor M

After she left her role at Burness Paull to join London media practice Simkins, Fiona McAllister – now a lawyer at Channel 4 – began looking for an extra-curricular activity that would allow her to contribute to society while at the same time not being too closely related to her day job.

Balfour & Manson partner Robert Holland is convinced that employment is the best practice area for a lawyer to work in because it offers what he describes as the “best combination of black-letter law with a human-interest angle”. As head of his firm’s employment practice he wou

When Amanda Millar put herself forward to become president of the Law Society of Scotland she wanted to make a difference to her profession during a time of considerable challenges. What she did not know back in the relative calm of 2018 was that by the time she took over from John Mulholland in Jun

If there is one thing the Scotch whisky industry could have done without this year it is a global pandemic. The sector, which employs 11,000 people and contributes billions of pounds to the UK economy each year, was still reeling from the impact of tariffs introduced by US President Donald Trump las

When disputes specialist Rachael Bicknell flew out to New Zealand at the beginning of this year the plan was to enjoy a break with her in-laws in a coastal paradise on New Zealand’s North Island. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, and a trip that was supposed to last just a few weeks began str

In ordinary times, MBM Commercial would celebrate its August birthday alongside clients, sipping drinks and watching festival fireworks from an Edinburgh HQ that has a ringside view over the capital’s historic castle. These are not ordinary times, though, and while the firm, which was spun out

As a sports-mad youngster with an obsession for TV show Ally McBeal, Jodi Gordon’s main ambition when she was growing up was to find a job that would allow her to combine her love for both. After studying at the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh and beginning her career at personal injury

When the Supreme Court gave its decision in long-running matrimonial dispute Villiers v Villiers this month it handed a significant victory to Edinburgh law firm SKO Family Law. Led by partner Rachael Kelsey – the K in SKO – the firm represented Mrs Villiers in a matter that had sought t

When news broke in June that a Sudanese asylum seeker had been shot dead after stabbing six people in a Glasgow hotel there was an immediate public outcry. How, people wanted to know, could a system that is supposed to protect the vulnerable have allowed a man with obvious mental health difficulties

In many ways Usman Tariq’s family history reads like a classic immigrant narrative. His grandfather came from Pakistan to Scotland in search of a better life; his father left school early to enter the world of work; Mr Tariq and his two sisters were enabled and encouraged to grab every educati

As someone who was inspired to become a lawyer after watching Granada TV show Crown Court, Claire Mitchell QC has always loved the drama of advocacy. “Crown Court was my first experience of the legal process and of true crime – I know it wasn’t true, but I was watching it as if it