Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland to deliver SYLA Annual Lecture

The Scottish Young Lawyers’ Association has announced that Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC will deliver its Annual Lecture for 2015, in association with Scott & Co.

Mr Mulholland will speak on the subject of human rights in the criminal justice sphere at the lecture, which takes place at the Hilton Grosvenor in Edinburgh on Thursday 10 September at 7pm.

Mr Mulholland graduated from Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities achieving his LLB (Hons) in 1981 and his MBA in 1997. His career began when he joined the fiscal service as a depute in Greenock in 1984. He went on to work as a depute in Glasgow and Edinburgh, before taking up posts in the Crown Office, first in the High Court unit and then in Appeals.

In 1997 he became the first Advocate Depute to be appointed from within the Procurator Fiscal Service. As an Advocate Depute he prosecuted a series of high profile and significant cases.

In October 1999 he returned to the fiscal service as Assistant Procurator Fiscal at Edinburgh, and was appointed District Procurator Fiscal at Edinburgh in 2001. During his time in Edinburgh, Mr Mulholland was responsible for overseeing the case against a number of Algerian persons charged with terrorist offences.

He returned to the ranks of Crown Counsel in 2003, as the first serving member of the Procurator Fiscal Service to be appointed Senior Advocate Depute. As Senior Advocate Depute he prosecuted HMA v Transco (Larkhall gas explosion in 1999) and represented the Crown in the appeal by Campbell and Steele.

He was appointed Area Procurator Fiscal for Lothian and Borders in January 2006. As Area Procurator Fiscal for Lothian and Borders he supervised the case against Angus Sinclair (Worlds End murders), the Allison and Johnson murder inquiry (in to the conduct of the investigation into the murder of Andrew Forsyth), and was in charge of Advocacy training for the prosecution service. Mr Mulholland was appointed Solicitor General in 2007 and Lord Advocate in 2011.

The lecture may count for 1 hour CPD and attendees can register in advance on Eventbrite.