News
5 March, 2020
Ampersand Advocates celebrate Legal 500 Scottish Bar Silk and Junior of the year successes
Ampersand’s Aidan O’Neill QC and Laura-Anne van der Westhuizen were in attendance at the Legal 500 UK 2020 Awards winner’s event in London on 27th February 2020 to celebrate their successes in winning “Scottish Bar Senior of the Year” and “Scottish Bar Junior of the Year” respectively.
The awards are unique in the legal industry as they follow months of thorough research and recognise each element of the profession equally, representing the very best law firms, chambers, barristers/advocates, in-house lawyers, business leaders and general counsel operating at the top of their game within the UK market.
Aidan O’Neill QC has enjoyed big successes in his major constitutional cases, including being victorious back in December 2018 before the Full Court (25 judges) of the European Court of Justice in the case of Wightman, to decide whether Article 50 could be revoked and successfully appeared before the 11-judge bench of the UK Supreme Court in September 2019 in the case of Miller 2/Cherry representing Joanna Cherry QC where he persuaded it unanimously to uphold the ruling of the Inner House of the Court of Session regarding Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament. It also followed being recognised by The Lawyers Hot 100.
Laura-Anne van der Westhuizen’s success reflects her expertise across a range of practice areas, with particular emphasis on commercial litigation, planning & environmental law, public & administrative law and public inquiries. Her recent work includes a number of significant cases including a judicial review of the controversial decision to grant planning permission for Aberdeen F.C.’s new stadium, an action for declarator of breach of contract relating to the M8, M73, M74 motorway improvement project and the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. She is praised for her “first-class legal mind” as well as her “technical excellence and good client care”.