DISABLING BARRIERS SCOTLAND - CREATING A CULTURE OF BELONGING IN THE SCOTTISH LEGAL PROFESSION

Following a momentous 2024, Disabling Barriers Scotland (DBS) announces partnerships with six new legal partners; Addleshaw Goddard, Brodies, Thorntons Solicitors, McGovern Reid Court Lawyers, Scullion Law and Shepherd and Wedderburn.

The charity will be hosting a variety of events with their new partners in 2025, starting with Creating a Culture of Belonging in the Scottish Legal Profession with Shepherd and Wedderburn.

Event Details

Date: Tuesday 11 February 2025, 12:00 - 13:00

Speakers: Gillian Carty (Partner and Chair, Shepherd and Wedderburn), Lindsay Jack (Head of Diversity, Careers and Outreach, Law Society of Scotland) and Fraser Mackay (DBS Chair and Co-Founder).

This event explores the importance of fostering inclusive and welcoming environments within the Scottish legal profession. The challenges and opportunities surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion will be explored. Panellists will discuss how to build a profession where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to succeed. Through engaging discussions, expert insights, and practical strategies, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of how to create lasting, positive change within their workplaces and the wider legal community. This event is essential for anyone committed to building a more representative and equitable future for the Scottish legal profession.

Read more about the mission of DBS and their recent achievements in the article below.

For further information, please visit Disabling Barriers Scotland on LinkedIn or email contactus@dbscotland.org.

DBS is a Scottish registered charity SC053043 administered by the Society’s Governance and Charities team.

WS CPD CONFERENCES 2025

The Society’s leading CPD programme continues this year across a wide range of practice areas. Events are open to all, with discounted rates for WS members. All events will take place, in person, at the Signet Library. Further information on speakers, timings and online booking will be available on our event page.

SPRING

  • WS Charities & Third Sector – 3 April 2025, 9.00 am - 1.00 pm

  • WS Intellectual Property – 24 April 2025 , 9.00 am - 1.00 pm

  • WS Personal Injury – 1 May 2025, 9.00 am - 1.00 pm

  • ALA/WS Joint Agricultural Law – 6 June 2025, 9.00 am - 1.00 pm

AUTUMN

  • WS Commercial Dispute Resolution Conference – 4 September 2025, 9.00 am - 1.00 pm

  • WS Sports Law Conference – 11 September 2025, 9.00 am - 5.00 pm

  • WS Employment Law Conference – 25 September 2025, 9.00 am - 1.00 pm

  • WS/STEP Joint Conference for Private Client Advisers – 9 October 2025, 9.00 am - 1.00 pm

  • WS/PNLA Joint Conference on Professional Negligence Law – 23 October 2025, 9.00 am - 1.00 pm


Please contact Sophie Mills WS if you have any questions.

JANUARY HISTORY TALKS

This January the WS Society hosted its first January Lecture Series, an extension of the History Special Interest Group. We hosted three excellent speakers who covered a range of historical subjects, many with links to Writers to the Signet or the Signet Library’s collections.

Our first speaker was Dr Kit Baston who gave a lecture on ‘The Bibliotheca Polonica: Poland and the Signet Library’. Dr Baston’s new research into one of the Signet Library’s most storied collections of books revealed a curious, open and sympathetic history of the Signet Library during the Polish revolutionary wars. A collection of Polish books, the Bibliotheca Polonica, was donated to the Signet Library to protect them from near constant conflict in Poland and out of reach of the Prussians and the Czar. This rare collection, now in the care of the National Library, demonstrated a forward-thinking Signet Library in the nineteenth century. Dr Baston reflected on the similar threats to books and libraries in present day Ukraine. Dr Baston and the Signet Library team curated a detailed exhibition with artefacts and documents related to the Bibliotheca Polonica, which is still available for viewing in the Upper West Library.

Richard Blake WS followed with a lecture on his new book Sugar, Slaves and High Society: the Grants of Kilgraston 1750-1860. This book explores the fortunes of the Grants of Kilgraston who were interlinked with the rise and subsequent decline of the British Empire and the Caribbean slave economy. Richard Blake WS presented a wonderfully varied cast of characters who were colourful, idiosyncratic, wayward and talented. As the British Empire extended its dominion, the Grants cemented their position in high society and left their mark on history as they encountered royalty and the White Rajahs of Sarawak. This history offered attendees a moving insight into a local family with global connections (and several Writers to the Signet to note).

Our last speaker in the series was Chloë Kennedy, Professor of Law and History at the University of Edinburgh. Professor Kennedy’s lecture was based on her new monograph, Inducing Intimacy: Deception, Consent and the Law. Professor Kennedy utilised the Commissioner Room’s extensive historic texts on criminal law for parts of her research. Her lecture considered the law’s response to deceptively induced intimacy across both civil and criminal law over more than two centuries. Encompassing legal responses within a fresh model of socio-legal history, Professor Kennedy takes a long-term historical view which has important implications for the law’s treatment of induced intimacy today.

We were delighted to attract a full house for each lecture in the Commissioners Room. Our guests enjoyed a drinks reception before each lecture and had ample opportunity to discuss their historical interests.

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS UPDATE

Since launching our Special Interest Groups, a WS Society membership benefit available to all members, we have introduced five groups.

Art, led by Valerie Paterson WS, have met twice since launch. During their first meeting, they were joined by guest Adebanji Alade, President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. This month they held a Meet and Greet the Artist with Peter Graham ROI RSW, at The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour Annual Exhibition. To register your interest in joining the Art SIG, and to keep up to date with future meetings, please contact membership@wssociety.co.uk.


Artificial Intelligence (AI)
SIG have their first meeting on Thursday 6 February, via Zoom, at 12:30 – 13:30. This SIG is led by by Fiona Killen, who is a solicitor specialising in Information Law and Privacy, and who is currently a Visiting Researcher (AI: Governance, Ethics and Accountability) at the University of Strathclyde.  The purpose of the AI SIG will be discussed, along with emerging legal issues of mutual interest in AI. There is still time to register!


Book Club
has met twice to discuss Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris and Ian Rankin’s A Heart Full of Headstones. Led by Caroline Doherty WS, the next Book Club meeting is to be held on Tuesday 25 February, 17:30 – 18:30, to discuss The Importance of Being Seven, by Alexander McCall Smith. Register to attend this meeting here.

Future books include:

  • The Last Witch of Scotland by Phillip Paris

  • Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

  • The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

  • The group is also looking at returning to works by F. Scott Fitzgerald; Sylvia Plath; Thomas Hardy and Albert Camus.


Charity and Third Sector
SIG, led by Sarah Brown WS, held their inaugural meeting last November. The next meeting is on Thursday 20 February, 12:30 – 13:30. New members are very welcome and will be joined by a member of the team at OSCR, to discuss upcoming changes to charity law. Click here to sign up.


History
SIG benefitted from the launch of a new season of Thursday evening talks on history at the Signet Library, taking part throughout January. Speakers included Dr Kit Baston, Richard Blake WS and Professor Chloë Kennedy. The History SIG is led by James Hamilton, Research Principal at the WS Society. To register your interest, and to keep up to date with future meetings, please contact membership@wssociety.co.uk.

Each SIG is open to all categories of members, from student to employed to retired. No level of experience or expertise is required. Joining a SIG is free and included within your WS membership. If you have any questions or ideas for SIGs, please contact Sarah Leask (sleask@wssociety.co.uk).

RETIREMENT RECEPTION FOR THE LORD PRESIDENT AND LORD JUSTICE CLERK

Last week, the Society and other Scottish solicitor bodies joined to hold a drinks reception at the Signet Library to mark the retirement of the Lord President and the Lord Justice Clerk.

Susan Murray, the Law Society of Scotland President, paid tribute on behalf of the solicitor profession to the Lord President and Lord Justice Clerk:

“In their roles at the head of our judicial system [they] have put that huge wealth of knowledge and experience to very good use, for the benefit of the public and also for the benefit of the legal profession.

They have long held an important place in our legal establishment; driving and overseeing developments in how our courts operate and right across our justice system. These developments have improved processes in terms of efficiency and effectiveness and have delivered greater transparency within our courts.

As we look ahead, I am certain that Lord Pentland, who will succeed Lord Carloway next month as Lord President, and fellow members of the judiciary, will continue to achieve these high standards of leadership and we, the Scottish solicitor profession, look forward to continuing our positive and productive relationship with the Scottish judiciary.

The retirement of two such esteemed figures as Lord Carloway and Lady Dorrian will be a significant event within the long history of Scotland’s justice system. They will each leave an important legacy behind them. On behalf of the entire solicitor profession in Scotland [we] wish you both very long, happy, healthy and active retirements.”