News

The public image of lawyers is all too often a distorted one: fat cats, divorced from the realities of life and absorbed with self-interest. As a consequence, certain aspects of legal life – and life at the bar is perhaps the clearest example – are often thought of as the preserve o

A campaign to have this year’s Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the world’s human rights defenders has received backing from the Faculty of Advocates’ Human Rights and Rule of Law Committee. Peace Brigades International, a non-governmental organisation which supports human rights and p

A restaurant owner has been fined around £190 for putting up a sarcastic window sign asking people not to let their dogs pee on an outdoor flower pot. Duc's Place, a Vietnamese restaurant in the US state of Connecticut, put up a sign reading: "Attn: dog owners. This is a pay-per-pee flower pot

Morton Fraser has struck two deals to better position itself in the Scottish legal market. The firm has taken on the private client team from Addleshaw Goddard and has transferred its residential property team to Coulters, as it takes a minority stake in the estate agency.

Nine new Queen’s Counsel have been appointed by Her Majesty the Queen on the recommendation of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. The new appointees are Una Doherty, advocate; Bruce Erroch, advocate; Jane Farquharson, advocate; Ruth Innes, advocate; Vinit Khurana, advocate; Ronaldo Renucci, advoc

A solicitors' tribunal has questioned delays over a professional misconduct hearing into Hamilton Burns partners Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh and Nial Mickel, who are the subjects of a disciplinary action by the Law Society of Scotland. The Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal (SSDT) rais

A woman convicted of assault and then admonished and whose case was taken up by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission and referred to the High Court of Justiciary, which refused the appeal, has, in an exceptional occurrence, had her case referred for a second time. The Scottis

The UK government has said claims that its Agriculture Bill is an attempt at a 'power grab' are "false and misleading" and that agriculture will "remain devolved" to Scotland. The government is not seeking consent from the Scottish Parliament on the bill because it is not legislating in areas of dev

Following much controversy surrounding the European Union’s proposed Copyright Directive, MEPs have voted again on the Directive, this time in a vote of support with 438 in favour, 226 against and with 39 abstentions, writes Euan Duncan. MEPs previously voted against the Directive in July of t

Scotland’s newest solicitors with Alison Atack, president of the Law Society of Scotland, Lorna Jack, its chief executive and Lord Eassie, who spoke at the admissions ceremony at the Signet Library yesterday.

Donald MacKinnon looks at how the rights of House of Fraser’s 17,500 employees may be affected following the deal with Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct. Does ‘pre-pack’ deal protect House of Fraser’s staff?

A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment and will serve a minimum of 17 years in jail for the murder of Ansar Shah 25 years ago. Jagtar Singh, 51, murdered Mr Shah in the car park outside a restaurant in Ayr in the early hours of 4 October 1993.

After a busy summer, the SYLA is back with a series “So you want to be...” events as well as an interprofessional networking evening in September. You can check out SYLA’s full calendar of events here. So you want to be a judge? - Wednesday 19 September 2018, Atria One, Edinbu

An informal gathering in memory of solicitor Michael McGinley will be held next Wednesday in Dundee at Clarks on Lindsay Street and to which friends and colleagues are warmly invited. The event will begin at 5pm.