Susanne Tanner KC FCIArb

Susanne Tanner KC took Silk in 2016, having called to the Bar in 2000. She is an experienced court practitioner who is always thoroughly prepared and has superb attention to detail.

She has built up and maintained a quality practice spanning:

She also sits as a tribunal chair in the First-tier Tribunal Housing and Property Chamber as well as the Health and Education Chamber, holds a number of academic appointments and is the Executive Editor of Green’s Scottish Education Manual.

Susanne is also a Door Tenant at Crown Office Chambers, London.

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Laurence Kennedy FCIArb

Laurence Kennedy called to the bar in 2000 having been a court solicitor for the previous five years. Since then he has maintained a busy court practice based on repeat instructions from a discrete group of instructing solicitors.

He was listed in Legal 500 as “outstanding”, “an effective advocate in court”, “excellent in an advisory role” and “noted for his technical competence and good legal and commercial analysis”.

He is described by agents as “professional and client friendly” and “user friendly from a solicitor’s point of view”. Agents also value his “low key, no nonsense approach”. He is “not afraid to give robust advice” and has “excellent client management skills”.

His day to day caseload focuses on property, commercial, partnership and contract disputes along with professional negligence and personal injury cases.

He has particular experience in areas of law affecting the media such as defamation, contempt of court and copyright. He was engaged for a number of years as a shift lawyer for a number of Scottish newspapers where he gave regular pre-publication advice.

He is an accredited arbitrator and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He also sits regularly as a part time Judge of the First-tier tribunal and is a legally qualified Chair for the Scottish Social Services Council.

For further details about his arbitration practice, please visit his website at laurencekennedy.com.

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Aidan O’Neill KC

King’s Counsel at the Scottish Bar, Bar of England and Wales and Bar of Ireland. A wide ranging legal practice in both London and Edinburgh, with particular experience and expertise in commercial judicial review, environmental/Aarhus law and in employment/equality law. A specialist in EU law, in human rights law and in UK constitutional law. Awarded the Legal 500 UK Bar Award for Scottish Silk of the year for 2020 and EU law Silk of the year in 2015 and Scottish Legal Awards 2017, 2018 and 2019 Silk of the year.

A highly experienced pleader before the top courts. Senior counsel in almost thirty cases to date from across the UK before the UK Supreme Court/ House of Lords, as well before the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights.

Previously teaching fellow at Princeton and Edinburgh universities. Author of substantial academic articles, blog posts and legal practitioner texts.

Selected recent Cases

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Alan Dewar KC

Alan Dewar KC was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1989 and took silk in 2002. He was the Treasurer of the Faculty of Advocates from 2007 to 2011. Over the years he has appeared in a wide range of civil and criminal cases, particularly in the fields of commercial, public law, and professional and clinical negligence. In addition, he has acted for and advised companies and public authorities on contractual and delictual disputes, public procurement, regulatory and licensing issues, as well as other agencies such as the Registers of Scotland, and professional bodies such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS). He is a legal adviser to the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. He has also represented companies, other corporate bodies and individuals in a number of public inquiries, planning inquiries, fatal accident inquiries, defamation actions, and intellectual property disputes. In the public law sphere he has extensive experience in the field of judicial review, human rights and immigration. Alan is also often appointed by the Court to act as Commissioner in Section 1 (“dawn raid”) petitions.

Alan has extensive advocacy experience arising from practising as a solicitor and advocate for more than 30 years. This includes Inner and Outer House experience in the Court of Session as well as a significant number of appearances in the House of Lords, Privy Council, the UK Supreme Court, the European Commission in Strasbourg and the UEFA Disciplinary Tribunal in Geneva. He was junior counsel to the Orkney Inquiry; standing junior counsel to a number of Government Departments including the Department of Trade and Industry and the Scotland Office; an Advocate Depute for three years; and also has extensive experience in planning and other inquiries, and before various other Tribunals. Between 2009 and 2011 he successfully represented the Lord Advocate and the Scottish Ministers in the AXA insurance case (which confirmed the validity of the Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions)(Scotland) Act 2009), ultimately in the UK Supreme Court.

He also acted for the Scottish Ministers in the Clostridium Difficile Inquiry chaired by Lord MacLean: the Report of the Inquiry was published in 2014. In November 2013 he successfully represented the pursuer/appellant in Cramaso LLP v Viscount Reidhaven’s Trustees in the UK Supreme Court, a case concerned with the tenancy of a grouse moor in which the principal issue was whether there was sufficient proximity between an individual and a LLP such as to create a duty of care in the context of negligent misrepresentations. He also acted for the successful pursuers in Frank Houlgate Investment Co Ltd v Biggart Baillie LLP [2014] CSIH 79 in which The Inner House upheld the decision of Lord Hodge after proof. The pursuers established that a solicitor and his firm were liable to the pursuers for facilitating a continuing fraud when the solicitor had continued to act for a fraudster even after he had confessed to the fraud. More recently he has acted for a number of asylum seekers in various challenges to the operation of the Dublin II and III Regulations, and for the successful petitioners in Ochiemhen and Menuba v SSHD [2016] CSOH 179 and 180 (concerned with alleged breaches of visas granted to the petitioners to operate as entrepreneurs in the UK) and Alagoz v SSHD [2017] CSOH 27 (concerned with the operation of the EEC – Turkey Association Agreement).

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Christian Marney FCIArb

Christian Marney’s interest and considerable experience is in professional negligence and commercial litigation; employment and personal injury reparation. He is regularly instructed in professional negligence matters in particular, though not exclusively, by the Law Society of Scotland professional indemnity insurers. He is currently pursuing and defending actions in the Court of Session and Sheriff Court on behalf of solicitors and construction and housing professionals. He has a well established track record in personal injury having acted for most of the major insurers for most of his professional career. However, he also ensures that he continues to pursue cases on behalf of individuals and succeed in securing full compensation on behalf of those injured persons. He has a longstanding interest and involvement in employment matters, both advisory and litigated. He is one of a small number of junior counsel recognised in this area at the Scottish Bar. He has advised and represented UK plc’s, Local Government and major insurance companies in all of those areas. Christian was admitted to The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 2017 as a Fellow in October 2018.

Recent cases:

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Dana Forbes

Dana called to the bar in 2015 after 13 years with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. Her caseload often involved difficult issues such as human rights, administrative law, novel legal argument and areas of potential legal reform. She has extensive experience in court practice as well as legal research, analysis and opinion writing. During her career, Dana has provided legal advice to the Law Officers, Crown Counsel and the Scottish Government Legal Directorate.

Since calling she has gained considerable experience in personal injury (acting for both pursuers and defenders), clinical negligence, judicial review and Fatal Accident Inquiries. Her other interests include health and safety prosecutions, succession, property rights and criminal appeals.

Dana has conducted proofs in the Court of Session and the All Scotland Personal Injury Court. She has presented cases before the Sheriff Appeal Court and the Court of Criminal Appeal. Dana has also represented clients before the Scottish Social Services Council and on referral to the Sheriff Court from the Children’s Hearing system.

Dana has assisted the Judicial Institute with their training programme. She has also given presentations to new lawyers on behalf of the Law Society of Scotland on subjects such as advocacy, personal injury and specialist procedure in the Court of Session.

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