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Senior Irish lawyers will travel to Washington D.C. this week to launch a Government-backed initiative to promote Ireland as an international legal centre after Brexit. The Law Society of Ireland's director-general Ken Murphy and president Patrick Dorgan are travelling to the US today and will take

Harper Macleod LLP has supported Shetland business Laurence Odie Knitwear Ltd in the company’s recent move to employee ownership.

Crown prosecutors have been given a 10 per cent salary boost following a decade of wage freezes. The First Division Association, which represents senior civil servants, negotiated with the UK government for the increase.

A Police Investigations & Review Commissioner (PIRC) report has found that police were justified in their use of a baton launcher and a Taser device when they were arresting an armed man. Officers from Police Scotland were called to the incident on the morning of Saturday 2 June 2018 in Troon, w

Lawyers Without Borders Student Division at Aberdeen University hosted its fifth annual human rights conference on Monday. The topic was "Refugee Protection: Are refugees afforded sufficient protection under human rights law?" The conference was opened by student president Max Wiktorsson followed by

If you’re a Diploma or LLB student in your final or penultimate year, the Law Society of Scotland is offering you the chance to win three weeks’ paid work experience in the Scottish Parliament’s Legal Services team as well as a £500 cash prize. To enter, the society asks entr

The governor of California has announced an immediate moratorium on the use of the death. Governor Gavin Newsom, who was sworn in at the start of the year, will today sign an executive order granting a reprieve to prisoners on death row and closing down the execution chamber at San Quentin State Pri

A lecturer at a top Scottish university was reported to police over an alleged "hate crime" after quoting Trainspotting on Instagram. James Mooney, a film and philosophy lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, screened the cult classic for a delegation of visiting American students last month.

A bank employee who stole more than £50,000 from customers’ accounts has had his sentence reduced following an appeal. Rameez Hamid, who was sentenced to the three years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to embezzling some £51,000, argued that the custodial term was “

There is a risk that sentencing guidelines may ultimately lead to higher sentences because of public perception of cases deemed high profile by the media, the Lord President, Lord Carloway has said. In an address to the Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow on case management and sentencing, Lord

The "seemingly innocuous" Children (Equal Protection from Assault) Bill is currently making its way through Holyrood. Nevertheless, certain aspects of this bill should give us pause for thought, writes Michael Sheridan. On the face of it, it proposes the seemingly rational objective of criminalising

Nadine Martin, an associate in the family law team at Harper Macleod, has joined a select band of solicitors who have achieved a full set of family law related specialist accreditations from the Law Society of Scotland. Ms Martin has recently been accredited as a specialist in child law, which cover

Members of the independent panel tasked with reviewing Scotland’s planning system are close to withdrawing their support for the current Planning (Scotland) Bill. In a letter to planning minister Kevin Stewart, Crawford Beveridge, Petra Biberbach and John Hamilton, joined calls by the Scottish

Thorntons has appointed Neil Darling as an associate in its land and rural business team in Edinburgh.  Mr Darling, from Galashiels, has specialisms in forestry, development in the countryside, renewables, minerals and agricultural matters.

Shona Young and Sandra Robertson have joined Gilson Gray's North Berwick office. Ms Young specialises in family law while Ms Robertson is a financial advisor.