The Legal 500

Position

Practises in the broad field of public law. Main areas of practice are human rights law (civil and criminal), licensing law, betting and gaming, local government law, asylum and immigration law, extradition law, prison law, and social work law. He has particular experience of judicial review in the Court of Session. Also has significant experience of appearing before licensing boards and local authority committees. Has appeared before the Social Security Commissioners, Immigration Appeal Tribunal and the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal. Important cases include: E v United Kingdom (2003) 36 EHRR 31 (European Court of Human Rights, violations of Articles 3 and 13 of ECHR found and substantial compensation paid for failure of social workers to protect vulnerable children from abuse and failure of national system to provide a remedy); DS v HM Advocate and Advocate General for Scotland [2007] SCCR 222 (Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, human rights and fairness of legislation which discloses previous criminal convictions at trial); R v HM Advocate and Advocate General for Scotland 2003 SC (PC) 21 (Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, remedy for breach of the reasonable time guarantee was dismissal of proceedings); Flynn and others v HM Advocate 2004 SC (PC) 1 (Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, existing mandatory life prisoners should not be exposed to risk of longer sentence under new statutory punishment part scheme); Helow v Advocate General for Scotland and Lord Advocate [2008] UKHL 62 (House of Lords, alleged judicial bias in determination of asylum appeal); Dumfries and Galloway Council v Scottish Information Commissioner [2008] CSIH 12 (Inner House, successful appeal against decision of Commissioner to order disclosure of trading standards information); Catscratch Ltd v City of Glasgow Licensing Board 2001 SLT 503 (Court of Session, established that failure to renew licence could be a disproportionate control of possessions under the ECHR); Spirit Group Ltd and Mitchells and Butlers Retail Ltd v City of Aberdeen Licensing Board 2005 SLT 13 (Outer House, Court of Session, decided that licensing board has no power to control minimum prices for sale of alcohol); Smith v North Lanarkshire Licensing Board 2005 SLT 544 (Inner House, Court of Session, suspension of liquor licence for alleged sectarian activity unreasonable); Koca v Secretary of State for the Home Department 2005 SC 487 (Inner House, Court of Session, asylum appeal hearing unfair); Torabi v Secretary of State for the Home Department 5 May 2006 (Inner House, Court of Session, decision to refuse human rights appeal by women facing return to Iran for prosecution for adultery when risk of penalty of death by stoning held to be unreasonable); O’Hagan v Rea 2001 SLT 30 (Sheriff Court, acted for local authority, prosecution of parents of truanting child did not breach ECHR); BP Express Shopping Ltd v West Fife Divisional Licensing Board [2007] 37 SLLP 29 (test purchasing under Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005); Alldays Stores Ltd v Central Fife Licensing Board [2007] 37 SLLP 34; Shafiq v North Lanarkshire Licensing Board, 23 January 2009, Hamilton Sheriff Court (successful appeal against refusal of premises license under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005); Kaya v City of Glasgow Licensing Board, 10 July 2010, Glasgow Sheriff Court (acted for board in successful opposition to motion for interim recall of suspension of licence); Kell (Scotland) Ltd v City of Glasgow Licensing Board, 28 May 2010, Glasgow Sheriff Court (consideration of scope of challenge to board policy); Drinkcafe Ltd v City of Glasgow Licensing Board, 9 September 2010, Glasgow Sheriff Court (acted for board in successful defence of appeal against decision to refuse variation of hours on policy grounds); Anderson v Glasgow City Council, 20 May 2010, Glasgow Sheriff Court (acted for council in successful defence of challenge to decision to suspend taxi driver’s licence).

Career

Called 2000; qualified as Scottish solicitor 1994; in practice as solicitor 1994-99. Publications of note include: ‘Scots Administrative Law: Cases and Materials’ (Edinburgh 1999); ‘Human Rights and Constitutional and Administrative Law’ in ‘Scottish Human Rights Service’ (Hon Lord Reed and Prof A Miller eds); ‘Public Law’ in ‘A Practical Guide to Human Rights Law in Scotland’ (Hon Lord Reed ed, Edinburgh 2001). He is a part-time judge of the asylum and immigration chambers and in 2007, he was made a part-time legal convener of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland.

Languages

French.

Member

In 2007 he was co-opted as a committee member of the Law Society of Scotland Licensing Law Sub-committee.

Education

Camphill School, Paisley; University of Glasgow (1991 LLB Hons first class; 1992 DipLP).

Leisure

Military and naval history, food and wine, walking, archaeology, music, antiques.

Practice Areas

Administrative and public law; Civil liberties and human rights; Licensing