TURCAN Connell has made a raft of promotions: Alastair Collin (property), Kenneth Pinkerton (tax and trusts), Donald Simpson (company) and Linsey Smith (property) – a former deputy director of the Law Society of Scotland’s professional practice depa
rtment – have all become senior associates. Meanwhile, Russell Duncan (conveyancing), Stuart Holmes (litigation), Gillian MacNulty (property) and Phaedra Mercer (conveyancing) have been promoted to associate status. Turcan Connell has also promoted Duncan Blyth, to the senior investment manager, and Iain Alexander becomes the firm’s senior tax manager.
ISOBEL d’Inverno is leaving MacRoberts to join Brodies as its new director of corporate tax. D’Inverno, who joins the firm in June, is convenor of the Law Society of Scotland’s tax law committee and a director of Reform Scotland, a new independent, non-party think-tank. Brodies’ Alan Barr says: “We are delighted that Isobel is returning to Brodies. She is undoubtedly a leader in the field of tax law, respected by clients and peers alike.”
KAREN Cameron, a former procurator fiscal depute, has joined Ledingham Chalmers’ Inverness office. Cameron – a member of the Adjudication Society, CIArb, the Property Litigation Association and Health and Safety Lawyers Association – is an expert in contentious construction cases and has been involved in disputes concerning private finance initiatives and public-private partnerships.
JOHN Sturrock, founder and chief executive of Core Solutions Group, has been invited to serve on the board of Mediators Beyond Borders, the US-based international body, and has also been appointed to the Independent Standards Commission of the International Mediation Institute. Sturrock was also appointed to the UK-wide Sport Resolutions Panel.
DAVID Hossack has been reaccredited as a commercial mediator by the Law Society of Scotland. Hossack – a partner in the civil litigation division of Morton Fraser – trained with Core Mediation and is now a member of the mediation panel for Catalyst Mediation. As well as being accredited by the society as a commercial mediator, he is accredited as an employment law specialist, is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and is on the Scottish Mediation Register.
NEWSSTUDENTS from Dundee University’s diploma in legal practice raised £320 for Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres by holding a “students versus staff” quiz at Braes bar.
HARPER Macleod and Tods Murray have been chosen to supply legal services to the Forestry Commission Scotland. Tods Murray had acted as sole provider to the commission for 12 years.
BLACKADDERS is taking over Gourley McBain, which has offices in Arbroath and Carnoustie. The merger, on 1 May, will mean big changes for Gourley McBain’s partners: Norman Erskine will act as a consultant to Blackadder’s Carnoustie office; Walter Ruark will retire; and Alex Small, the senior partner, will act as a consultant to Blackadder’s Arbroath office.
EVENTSLORD Colin Boyd, the former Lord Advocate and now head of public law at Dundas & Wilson, will be among the speakers at his firm’s seminar on the Corporate Manslaughter and Culpable Homicide Act on Friday 4 April in D&W’s Edinburgh office.
“MAKING Markets Work in a Devolved Context” is the title of the Scottish Competition Law Forum’s spring seminar at Strathclyde University on 11 April. Speakers include: Iain McMillan, director of CBI Scotland; John Fingleton, chief executive of the Office of Fair Trading; Sra Cristina Pellise de Urquiza, a member of the Catalan Competition Tribunal; and Eleanor Gill, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland. E-mail
for more details.
MCCLURE Naismith is hosting an Asset Protection and Recovery Network conference on 24-25 April. Speakers will include: Lord Glennie, Court of Session commercial judge; David Harvie, head of casework at the Crown Office; and Neil Davidson QC, the Advocate General for Scotland. Call Joyce Murray on 0141-204 2700 for more information.
AND FINALLY…ARNOT McWhinnie retired from journalism on Friday after 47 years. McWhinnie, 64, has reported daily from the High Court in Glasgow for the past 13 years. With Ross Harper, he wrote The Glasgow Rape Case, a book that helped to change the way in which rape victims are treated.
The full article contains 687 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
