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The Scottish government has "no understanding" of the seriousness of the legal aid problem, a lawyer has said. The reaction follows a letter from from legal affairs minister Ash Regan to Ken Dalling, president of the Law Society of Scotland, and Julia McPartlin, president of the Scottish Solicitors

Legal academic Navraj Singh Ghaleigh has authored and coordinated an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the future of oil and gas exploration in the United Kingdom, ahead of COP26. With recent climate events highlighting the worsening impacts of the climate crisis, the cost of delaying m

Macdonald Henderson announced six hires and two senior promotions.

We will hear lots about net-zero targets and tackling climate change in the coming weeks as COP26 arrives in Glasgow. Scotland has set itself the ambitious target of reducing emissions of all greenhouse gases to net zero by 2045. The rest of the UK, in common with most other countries, is targeting

Harper Macleod's corporate team has advised Beecatcher Pte Limited, a Singapore based company, on its acquisition of Byron Bakery Ltd in November 2020. Operating since the 1950s, Byron Bakery is a well-known bakery and retail store based in Aberdeen which has developed an extensive customer base and

Amnesty International is to close its Hong Kong offices by the end of the year because of China's controversial national security legislation. The human rights organisation said its work had been made "effectively impossible" by the Hong Kong national security law introduced by Beijing last summer i

A life-saving nasal inhaler that can reverse the effects of an opiod overdose is being given to men leaving jail. Prisoners at Barlinnie are being given the device and training on how to use it before being released as this is a time when people are vulnerable to overdosing.

When 12 ships from the Crimean port of Kaffa docked at Messina, Sicily, in October 1347 they carried more than onward consignments of exotic articles from the ancient oriental silk route. They also brought the bacterium versinia pestis. This had been passed from rodents and fleas to the ships’

Homebuyers are being warned about a spike in scams which have seen victims defrauded out of hundreds of thousands of pounds. The Law Society of England and Wales has joined forces with the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) and Action Fraud to issue flyers warning of the risk of payment diversion

The 20th annual Pro Bono Week will take place from 1 to 5 November 2021, offering an opportunity to recognise and support the voluntary contribution made by the legal profession across the UK in giving free legal help to those in need.  This milestone anniversary will be a pivotal moment to loo

A group of schoolkids are suing their local schools over an allegedly discriminatory dress code requiring boys to have short hair. Seven pupils in Magnolia, Texas have launched a lawsuit against their school district with support from the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.

The operators of a popular Glasgow bar have successfully challenged a decision of the City of Glasgow Licensing Board not to grant them seven consecutively running occasional licences for a pop-up bar in Glasgow’s Merchant City. Keasim Ltd, the operators of Malones bar in Sauchiehall Lane, bro

A ruling by Lady Carmichael in the Outer House yesterday confirms that all previous licensed killings of beavers authorised by the Scottish government’s nature agency, NatureScot, have been unlawful and have been revoked. The ruling confirms that from now on NatureScot must set out openly and

Consumers have been advised to be alert as a sinister new scam purporting to be from Edinburgh Sheriff Court circulates Scotland. People are being contacted by bots which spoof what seems to be an official phone number and demand outstanding payments on fines in a bid to secure personal financial in

Financial results for Gillespie Macandrew confirm the business delivered another strong year overall despite the disruption caused by the pandemic. Revenue for the year ending 28 February 2021 was £13.5m (2020 - £14.4m), having been adversely affected in the initial few months of lockdow