News

A leaked draft judgment has shown that the US Supreme Court may overturn the landmark 1973 case of Roe v Wade, which guaranteed access to abortions. The opinion, written by Republican-appointed judge, Justice Samuel Alito, was published by Politico in what is an unprecedented leak from the court.

A solicitor sitting on a criminal jury has been jailed after researching a defendant online and sharing her findings with other jurors. Caroline Elizabeth Mitchell, whose actions led to the collapse of a child sexual abuse trial, has resigned from her position as an associate solicitor with Irwin Mi

Watermans, a law firm and estate agency based in Edinburgh and Glasgow, has announced the appointment of Darren and Alistair Lee as directors. They join the firm from Keller Williams.

A senior judge who is currently in hiding in Afghanistan feels “heartbroken, abandoned and backstabbed” by the UK government after it refused to allow him to come to Britain – despite a court ruling in his favour. The judge worked with British and US forces to prosecute Taliban, Is

David Jackson has been made CEO of Shoosmiths, which has offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow. He takes over from Simon Boss, under whose tenure the firm grew substantially.

Dr Jonathan Hardman has been promoted to senior lecturer at Edinburgh Law School. His appointment will take effect from August.

The Scottish government’s new Strategy for Economic Transformation for the next decade has been drawn up. The strategy focuses on the three areas of promoting investment, start-up business ventures and new green industries, and its goal is to see the Scottish economy outperform economic growth

Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) has confirmed three senior promotions in Scotland as part of its UK-wide growth. Chris McLauchlan, Lisa Dromgoole and Emily Pike from the firm’s Edinburgh office have been appointed as partners.

Hamish Lean discusses how farmers in Scotland have been outbid by the forestry industry, as the value of hill land rises. Is productive agricultural land being lost to forestry in the race to meet net-zero? There has been concern within the agricultural industry for some time that this is the case.

India's court case backlog stands at 48 million and will take 480 years to clear at the current rate, lawyers have said. There are delays in both criminal and civil cases, with many of them concluding long after the parties concerned have died.

A prison officer at HMP Barlinnie who claimed to have been injured during an attempt to return a difficult prisoner to his cell has failed in an action against his employers. Alexander Gemmell, who had worked as a prison officer since 1991, alleged that his employers, the Scottish Ministers, owed hi

A move by the Scottish government to introduce a requirement for consumers to have a licence to buy certain categories of fireworks will need to be clearly communicated to the public, according to the Faculty of Advocates. The Faculty was responding to the Scottish government’s consultation on

A recent drug bust saw a sheriff arrest his own daughter for alleged possession of methamphetamine. “Methamphetamine does not discriminate and neither do we,” said Florida's Franklin County Sheriff A.J. Smith in a Facebook post.

A black man who spent 30 years in jail for a murder in Miami has been freed after prosecutors concluded there had been a case of mistaken identity. Thomas Raynard James was 23 when he was convicted of murdering Francis McKinnon, who was shot dead on January 17, 1990 in front of his family after two

Terra Firma Chambers' Robert Skinner is to retire after a career spanning five decades at the Scottish bar. Today marks his last official day in practice before retiring with effect from 1 May.