Top family lawyers deliver expert talks at Scottish Legal Training’s Family Law Masterclass

This time it was the turn of some of the country’s finest family lawyers to present talks on some of the current issues in their field. The event was chaired by Shona Smith head of family law at Balfour and Manson LLP.

Janys Scott QC discussed making enforceable decisions with respect to children whilst Kate Dowdalls QC analysed the use of expert evidence in family cases.

The junior bar was well represented also with talks by Ruth Innes, Lynda Brabender, Kirsty Malcolm and Julian Aitken.

Ruth Innes took the delegates through the complexities regarding habitual residence in Hague Convention cases while Lynda Brabender discussed parole, affidavit and report evidence in family, permanence and adoption cases.

Kirsty Malcolm presented an overview on pensions and divorce whilst Julian Aitken assessed the case Law under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011.

Over 70 delegates attended from all over Scotland.

Event organiser Niall McCluskey, advocate said: “It was great to be able to put together an event with such an excellent range of family lawyers presenting seminars.

“This group of speakers really are at the top of their game and this was borne out by the way their talks were received by the delegates.”

Delegates were impressed by the calibre of the speakers and praised the quality of the talks.

Jeff Meek, partner and head of forensic accounting at French Duncan, a firm of chartered accountants said: “The talks have been really informative and topical. It’s a good, well-organised seminar.”

Lisa Rae, head of Thorley Stephenson’s child law department said: “I think the event is very well organised, the speakers are of a very high calibre and the subjects are interesting and topical.”

David Coutts, a solicitor at Anderson Strathern, said: “It’s great to have these events available to practitioners on various interesting topics – giving us the opportunity to hear insight from the highest calibre of lawyers we have in Scotland.”

Faryma Bahrami, a devil, said: “It’s been very good, the talks have been insightful, practical, informative and also very current. It’s given me quite a round view of how things are progressing in the courts and how the Brussels regulations are being interpreted by domestic judges”.