Lawyer Of The Month

There’s a chilly wind blowing around many of our farmhouse doors. With some 80 per cent of Scotland’s land under agricultural production and the agri-food sector now the largest area of manufacturing in the UK, farmers and growers are currently facing new threats to their livelihoods not

When Russia invaded Ukraine, there was an outpouring of sympathy from many for the nation under attack. A lawyer who decided action was needed and quickly used his professional experience to provide support to Ukrainians is John Vassiliou, a senior associate at Shepherd and Wedderburn. Mr Vassiliou,

Scottish solicitor Margaret Gribbon has dealt with many serious employment issues and cases over the years. Her experience dates back to her days of working for the Equal Opportunities Commission, followed by the Citizens Advice Bureau, and as a trade unionist before she qualified as a lawyer in the

It's just over a year since the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association (SSBA) was founded to represent the interests of criminal lawyers, and the organisation and its inaugural president Julia McPartlin have had a busy time since then. The SSBA was launched during a challenging period. The profession w

Rosie Walker, head of litigation and partner at Gilson Gray, didn't see law as a particularly accessible career when she was younger, and instead decided to study politics and history at the University of Edinburgh. But while she was a student, she says she realised the importance of law in society

For someone who decided to become a lawyer partly because it’s what his parents wanted him to do, John Scott QC has carved out a long and illustrious career in the profession. He has been involved in some of Scotland’s most high-profile inquiries and cases since starting out as a trainee

At the age of 12, Elaine Motion, chairman of Balfour and Manson, knew she wanted to be a lawyer. She admits to being slightly embarrassed about having that ambition at such a young age, and she isn't completely sure if it was a film or her father who most influenced her decision. “I always wan

As one of Scotland’s busiest trial counsel, Thomas Leonard Ross QC is well-known for passionately fighting for justice – in the courtroom and out of it. Most recently he has been a vocal opponent of the proposal that the historical right to trial by jury be removed where serious sexual o

Scotland's long-running police drama Taggart had a pivotal role to play in the career choice of Emma Forbes, principal procurator fiscal depute with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS). It was while watching an episode with her family when she was still at school that she first he

Despite having started studying law at the tender age of 16, Stuart Munro, managing director of Livingstone Brown, didn't have a burning desire to join the profession in his formative years. Instead, he describes it as something he “fell into”. At his local school he was expected to do w

Although Rosalie Chadwick had aspirations of being a fighter pilot, not a lawyer, she eventually decided to take the latter option partly because of what she describes as her stubborn streak. That desire to stand up to opposition, rather than shy away from heated discussion, is likely to serve her w

Licensing law, Stephen McGowan acknowledges, can be “extremely difficult to fathom”. He speaks as an expert, being both the head of licensing (Scotland) at TLT and the author of three books on the subject – the latest of which, the recently published McGowan on Alcohol Licensing La

International defamation lawyer Paul Tweed, partner and founder of Gateley Tweed, was recently profiled by our sister publication Irish Legal News. We include his interview with Margaret Taylor below. Given his reputation as a libel lawyer who has never lost a case, it is little wonder that Gateley

The renewed attention brought to mental health law by the Scottish government’s ongoing review under John Scott QC renders David W Cobb’s new book particularly timely. Published this month, A Practical Guide to the Sheriff Court and Protecting Vulnerable Adults in Scotland not only provi

After two decades running the IP practice at Burness Paull, Colin Hulme is well practised in defending his clients’ intellectual property rights. That does not mean there is nothing left for him to learn, though, which is why he has begun trialling a new form of rights-enforcement exercise: a