Margaret Taylor

Generations of students have been inducted into the study of law with Professor MacQueen's lectures and writings. One of the most popular figures in legal academia, he is admired by his colleagues and held in great affection by his students. Ahead of his retirement next month he talks to Margaret Ta

When Janys Scott QC was asked to represent 27 church leaders in a case relating to whether the Covid-induced closure of churches was lawful, she jumped at the chance. It was, she says, not only an opportunity to test a novel point of law but to explore questions relating to her own faith as well. &l

Margaret Taylor speaks to Julia McPartlin, president of the newly formed Scottish Solicitors Bar Association, on the crisis that has led to its formation. After years of pleading with the Scottish government to raise legal aid fees, by the end of last year Scotland’s criminal defence lawy

Margaret Taylor interviews Digby Brown's Chris Stewart, whose team was last year named Catastrophic Injury Team of the Year at the 2020 Personal Injury Awards. As head of Digby Brown’s catastrophic injury department, Chris Stewart represents people whose lives have been complete

SLN's Lawyer of the Month for April, Emma Toner, is the first woman editor of Session Cases. This year marks the law reports' bicentenary, on the occasion of which the Scottish Council of Law Reporting is running a poll to determine the most popular of the Session Cases. Nominate your favourite

With a father who was a procurator fiscal and two older siblings who had entered the legal profession too, meal-time conversations in Calum MacNeill’s childhood home were very much focused on the law. Given that background, it is perhaps unsurprising that the young Mr MacNeill was determined t

Fishing rights may have been one of the main sticking points of the Brexit negotiations, but not all recent fish-related battles have been waged between Britain and Brussels. In a case that played out much closer to home, the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation (SCFF) challenged the Scottish

When Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf announced plans for increased fees and a series of grants in the dying days of 2020, he said he was offering up a “significant package of support” for legal aid practitioners who had “worked hard since the Covid-19 outbreak to help maintain acces

There cannot be many advocates who would willingly compare themselves to a notorious despot, but Black Chambers’ Tony Lenehan is one. Having replaced Ronnie Renucci QC as president of the Scottish Criminal Bar Association (SCBA) at the tail-end of last year, Mr Lenehan likens his ascension to

As the year comes to a close with Christmas all but cancelled, it is hard to imagine that any good has come from Covid-19. For Morton Fraser partner David Hossack, however, one positive to come out of the coronavirus pandemic is that it has helped to highlight the role mediation can play in the reso

When a school teacher told the teenage Iain Smith he should downgrade his ambition to become a lawyer and focus on becoming a paralegal instead, it could have gone one of two ways: he could have thrown in the towel there and then or he could have resolved to work harder than ever to prove it was the

Criminal defence work may be a tough gig, but for an aspiring writer of crime fiction it has one key draw: it throws up a huge amount of material to work from. Indeed, when Russel & Aitken partner William McIntyre decided to turn his hand to novel writing a little over a decade ago he found he h

Much has been said about the plight of criminal defence lawyers in recent years, from the inadequacy of legal aid fees to the impracticality of working hours. Almost all of it has been from the point of view of practitioners with decades of experience in the sector, though. McGovern Reid solicitor M

After she left her role at Burness Paull to join London media practice Simkins, Fiona McAllister – now a lawyer at Channel 4 – began looking for an extra-curricular activity that would allow her to contribute to society while at the same time not being too closely related to her day job.

Balfour & Manson partner Robert Holland is convinced that employment is the best practice area for a lawyer to work in because it offers what he describes as the “best combination of black-letter law with a human-interest angle”. As head of his firm’s employment practice he wou