Lord Advocate appoints standing junior counsel

The Lord Advocate has appointed solicitor advocate Christine O’Neill (pictured) as first standing junior counsel, and Ruth Charteris as second standing junior counsel.

The following list of current standing junior counsel to the Scottish government includes further new appointments and existing appointments: Jonathan Barne; Alasdair Burnet; Daniel Byrne; James Findlay; Duncan Hamilton; Bryan Heaney; Lesley Irvine; Wojciech Jajdelski; Jillian Martin-Brown; Niall McLean (solicitor advocate); Chris Paterson; Susan Ower; Paul Reid; Michael Stuart; Alasdair Sutherland; Laura Thomson and Laura-Anne van der Westhuizen.

These appointments mean that counsel may be instructed on any matter falling within the Scottish government’s range of responsibilities and, with the exception of the second standing junior, does not affect their ability to accept instructions from any other source including instructions to act against the Scottish government.