New Law Society Council members elected

Ten solicitors stood for the five available Edinburgh seats and Colin Anderson was successfully re-elected after three years as a council member. Mr Anderson will be joined by Susan Oswald, an accredited child law specialist from SKO Family Law; Jim Stephenson, a solicitor advocate and current member of the society’s Public Policy Committee from Thorley Stephenson; Sheila Webster from Davidson Chalmers LLP and Susan Murray, a litigations solicitor in the National Health Service Scotland, whose election reflects the increasing numbers of Scottish solicitors working in-house.

Following a period of more than a decade during which the Aberdeen, Banff, Peterhead and Stonehaven election has gone uncontested, seven solicitors competed for the two available seats in the area.

Jane Dickers, a partner from Gray and Gray LLP and Deborah Anne Wilson from Wilson Defence are both new to council and will represent their North East colleagues for the next three years.

Twenty-five per cent of Aberdeen solicitors logged on to vote for their preferred candidate and a 15 per cent turnout in Edinburgh was more than double that of the 2014 election.

Lorna Jack, chief executive of the society, said: “It’s great to see increasing numbers of solicitors taking an interest in the work of their professional body.

“Congratulations to all of the successful candidates, a big thank you to everyone who voted or put their names forward for election this year and of course to all of the outgoing candidates whose work has been so valuable.

“I would also like to pay particular tribute to Jane MacEachran, who is standing down after serving on Council for the last 15 years, making an enormous contribution to the work of the Society.

I hope Jane and the other candidates who were not elected this time around will continue to stay involved, participating in the important work of our various committees.”

The full results and personal statements are available to read on the Law Society website: Council elections 2017