When Daria Shapovalova arrived in Aberdeen to study for a PhD in international law she never imagined that a decade later she would still be there, lecturing at the University of Aberdeen and leading the institution’s Centre for Energy Law. Her initial encounter with the city had been inauspic
Lawyer Of The Month
The first in her extended family to go to university, intellectual property specialist Lesley Larg was appointed as Dundee-based solicitors Thorntons' first female managing partner in 2021, taking over from Craig Nicol who held the post for 10 years, seven of those years as joint managing partn
When he was named the Law Society of Scotland’s In-house Rising Star of 2023, Too Good To Go global legal counsel Christopher Knudsen said the achievement was down to the help he had received from others and that he would equally like to “help others in the legal profession in the same w
At a cursory glance, the minimum legal requirements for producing Scotch Whisky appear to be deceptively simple. The spirit can only be made in Scotland from just three natural ingredients – water, yeast and cereals – and must be matured in oak casks for a minimum of three year
In 2019, Gillian Treasurer was on the cusp of moving from Wales to take up the coveted role of Scottish Rugby Union’s legal head when she got news that turned her world upside down. “For about a year I’d been feeling absolutely exhausted and quite ill and the day before I left Wale
Sheila Webster is in chipper mood when we catch up on Teams. Though she recently broke her shoulder tripping over a desk in the office, she has just had her sling removed and, while she is still in some pain and reliant on her husband – Themis Advocates KC Andrew Webster – for lifts, she
Laura Cameron’s dream of becoming a dentist when growing up in Perth was thwarted by an unfortunate and insuperable drawback: her aversion to the sight of blood. “Although I studied sciences at school and got the grades, after a few dissections in the biology lab I realised fairly early
Jimmy Black meets corporate lawyer Robert Pirrie WS, chief executive and in-house lawyer of the Society of Writers to the Signet. Deep in the cellars of the Signet Library, there are caverns with sturdy doors, guarding some of the Scottish legal profession’s most fascinating historical treasur
War and the internet … Inna Dzhurynska sits in her Dundee flat, drafting new legislation for the government of Ukraine. She’s part of a dispersed project team funded by USAID, working online to ensure that the laws and regulations governing Ukraine’s energy markets are compatible
It’s not an insignificant mark of regard of one’s peers for an advocate to be elected Clerk of Faculty as Barney Ross was last month following a six-way contest. It’s also one about which he is typically self-effacing, and he gently points out that his observations are made in a pe
Jennifer Jack says that she was an early speaker. “My mother tells me that one of my first words was ‘organised’ – which perhaps set me on the path to becoming a lawyer,” she smiles. It’s certainly a quality that her job – as the partner leading Ha
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