News

Garden Stirling Burnet (GSB) has acquired Shoosmiths’ Scottish will bank. The deal sees the transfer of responsibility of around 1,500 wills to GSB.

Shakespeare Martineau’s Scotland practice continues to grow with the appointment of solicitor Fergus Spowart and qualification of Fin Campbell following the completion of his training contract. Mr Spowart, who joins the litigation team in Edinburgh, grew up in East Lothian before studying law

Burges Salmon has announced the appointment of Lillian Mackenzie as a partner in its projects department, based in the firm’s Edinburgh office. Ms Mackenzie's practice spans infrastructure finance, major outsourcings, and public-private partnerships (PPP/PFI), with a track record of advising s

A former children's home worker sexually abused two young boys five decades ago, a court has ruled.   John Porteous was found to have targeted the victims between 1966 and 1972 while employed as a houseparent at Quarriers Village in Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire. 

It’s just under one week until SLN's sister publication Scottish Construction Now welcomes the key industry players to Glasgow to discuss Scotland’s construction future.

The number of police investigations into missing persons has "fallen significantly" since a national framework was implemented to support those most at risk. In 2017-18 Police Scotland conducted 22,966 investigations for people who were missing with one in two of those investigations for a person wh

Applications for Irish passports from the UK have exceeded 20,000 per month since January, with figures indicating demand could set a new annual record. Data from Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs shows that almost 82,000 applications have been lodged from Britain this year, alongside 87,500 f

Residents of a Bavarian apartment block who called police over persistent late-night doorbell ringing were astonished to learn the cause was not pranksters – but rather a slug. The creature had been sliding across the metal bell plate, repeatedly setting off the buzzer and disturbing residents

Holmes Mackillop has made a trio of appointments to its Ayr office. Zainab Ifzal qualified as a solicitor last week, Robyn Davidson joins as a trainee solicitor, and Amy Paterson has been appointed as an admin assistant.

Coulters Property has announced a partnership with Watsonian Football Club, becoming the club’s exclusive property sponsor for 2025.

Blackadders LLP has recruited eight new trainees to the firm’s training programme.

Burges Salmon has welcomed its first cohort of newly qualified solicitors in Edinburgh. Eva Hunter and Marcus Jones were admitted to the roll of solicitors earlier this month, becoming the first trainees to qualify in Scotland through Burges Salmon’s programme. They join the firm’s banki

Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC has expressed her "conviction" that tackling domestic abuse will make Scotland a safer place for women and girls after new figures shows a 0.4 per cent increase in the number of charges reported to the Crown Office. In 2024-25, 30,227 charges related to domestic abuse w

The Council of Europe has released a new guide aimed at limiting the use of criminal law to restrict freedom of expression, warning against the growing trend of its disproportionate application.  The guide offers a detailed overview of the European Court of Human Rights’ case law, underli

A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) has found “systemic failure” in the way a council handled the case of a 13-year-old girl who later died after her mother failed to seek medical treatment. Robyn Goldie died on 26 July 2018 from peritonitis caused by a perforated duodenal ulcer. Her mother,