News

The importance of technology for the future success of smaller legal firms has been underscored at a conference hosted by the Law Society of Scotland. Technology experts and smaller firm owners outlined the potential for technology to improve workplace efficiencies and client interactions while redu

Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC has defended the presumption against prosecuting children accused of rape amid a call for offenders under 16 to be treated as adults. Appearing before Holyrood's Public Petitions Committee yesterday, Ms Bain defended the Crown Office's policy of offering "diversion" as

Palestine Action has announced plans to challenge the UK government in court over its plans to proscribe the direct action protest group under terrorism legislation. Gareth Peirce of Birnberg Peirce Solicitors, a high-profile lawyer who previously represented the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Si

The Cambodian government is deliberately ignoring human rights abuses including slavery, human trafficking, child labour and torture that are being carried out by criminal gangs on a vast scale in more than 50 scamming compounds located across the country, Amnesty International said in a new report

A fraudster who earned more than £500,000 by deceiving luxury hotels and stores into buying ‘unique’ Scottish-grown tea that was actually imported has been imprisoned for three-and-a-half years. Thomas Robinson, 55, of Dunkeld, Perthshire, also defrauded a group of genuine Scottish

Catriona Torrance has been promoted to partner in the private client team at Balfour and Manson. Ms Torrance qualified as a solicitor in 2006 and has specialised throughout her career in private client work, including wills, powers of attorney, succession planning, and trusts.

The board of the Scottish Arbitration Centre has appointed Rebecca Wyke as a deputy registrar. The announcement was made by Duncan Bagshaw, the registrar of the centre, at the centre’s arbitration training day in Edinburgh today.

With the UK’s most significant inheritance tax (IHT) reforms in nearly two decades set to roll out from April 2025, legal professionals must prepare for an influx of estate planning enquiries, according to a new YouGov survey commissioned by Brodies LLP. The survey of 2,001 UK adults aged 50+

Kwik Fit, part of European Tyre Enterprise Limited (ETEL), has acquired a portfolio of 83 UK properties – which it currently occupies and includes over 30 sites in Scotland – as it aims to bring more sites into its direct ownership.   Kwik Fit, whose ultimate parent company is

Thompsons Solicitors Scotland has announced the opening of its new Edinburgh office at Greenside, 12 Blenheim Place.

Scotland’s rural land market is under increasing pressure from tax policies, speculative investment, and evolving land use priorities, according to voices from across the sector who gathered last week to launch the Rural Land Market Insights Report 2025. Hosted by the Scottish Land Commission

The Scottish Liberal Democrats have warned that the police need the right skills and resources to tackle online sex crimes as new annual crime statistics showed sex crimes are now at their second highest level since 1971 when records began. Figures from Police Scotland show that:

A proposed new law aiming to ensure public bodies consider the long-term impact of their decisions on sustainable development and the wellbeing of future generations is the subject of a new call for views. The Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill, introduced earlier this year by Sar

President of the Supreme Court Lord Reed was in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica last Friday to deliver the keynote address at a conference entitled “From Traditional to European Judiciary”.  Lord Reed was visiting at the invitation of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, with the supp

Baffled police have freed a man who got stuck in a chimney while trying to rescue his dog from a locked toilet. The 35-year-old man was locked out of a park building in Connecticut on Saturday night when the doors automatically locked at 10pm.