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Holmes Mackillop has announced appointments within the corporate and wills, estates and future planning teams. Rachel Loose completed a traineeship at Holmes Mackillop focused on corporate transactional work; Sophie Woodside also completed her traineeship at the firm, with a particular focus on will

Scotland's reconviction rate was 26.9 per cent in 2020-21 – a 2.6 percentage point increase from 24.3 per cent in 2019-20. The average number of reconvictions per offender, a measure of how often offenders are reconvicted, increased by eight per cent in the same period from 0.41 to 0.44.

The Faculty of Advocates has launched a new award to recognise human rights lawyers and defenders who uphold human rights and the rule of law worldwide. The 2023 Rule of Law Index revealed that more than six billion people live in countries where the rule of law weakened between 2022 and 2023. Funda

Individuals could spend more time under community supervision as part of their prison sentence, a consultation has proposed. Views are being sought on changing the point of release under licence conditions for people serving a custodial sentence of four years or more, which would "provide a more man

Amnesty International has documented new shipments of aviation fuel to Myanmar despite global calls to deprive the country’s military of the resources it needs to carry out unlawful air strikes. In January 2024, Amnesty International exposed the Myanmar military’s new evasive tactics for

Legal expert Professor Alison Britton passed away last Tuesday at the age of 63 following a short illness. As professor of healthcare and medical law at Glasgow Caledonian University, she carried out consultancy work for a range of organisations including the World Health Organization, the British M

A team established to consider how the recommendations in the Cass Review might apply to NHS services in Scotland has submitted its findings to the Scottish Parliament, including a recommendation that the use of puberty-suppressing hormones be paused. A senior clinical team, commissioned by the chie

A man who set fire to two properties while conspiring to set others ablaze has been jailed for three years after his encrypted phone messages revealed his crimes. Lewis Connor, 27, used five jerry cans filled with petrol to substantially damage a house in Dennyloanhead, near Falkirk, which was under

A round-up of human rights stories from around the world. 'Agony and pain': US health professionals reflect on the Gaza war

A former local authority employee who embezzled more than £1 million from Aberdeen City Council over a 17-year period has been imprisoned for four years. Michael Paterson, 59, set up an internal pathway which allowed him to fraudulently issue council tax refunds into his own bank account.

Joanna Cherry KC has lost Edinburgh South West to Labour’s Scott Arthur MP as the SNP suffered a major defeat at Westminster in the general election. Ms Cherry, a non-practising member of Arnot Manderson Advocates, said many voters felt that the SNP had “dropped the ball” on the ca

A man has been jailed for four months after being found in possession of a small replica of the Master Sword from the Legend of Zelda video game series.

A security guard from Essex who kept thousands of images of Holly Willoughby has been convicted today of planning her kidnap, rape, and murder. Gavin Plumb, 37, spent two-and-a-half years researching the TV presenter’s personal life and assembling a ‘kidnap kit’ which included hand

Lady Elish Angiolini has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Edinburgh Napier University. After several years of working at the Crown Office, the Govan-born solicitor became the first woman to be appointed as the regional procurator fiscal for Grampian and the Highlands and Islands, then the

A drugs courier who was paid £500 a trip to transport boxes of cannabis from England to Dundee has been jailed for 18 months. Lukas Losinski, 35, was caught with 974g of cannabis with a potential street value of £78,110 when police searched his home.