Usman Tariq KC

Usman Tariq KC has extensive experience of high-value and complex commercial disputes and public law litigation. His core areas of practice include contractual, intellectual property, insolvency, banking, company and professional negligence disputes. He also specialises in administrative and public law, including judicial reviews. He has appeared at all levels of the Scottish court system, including the UK Supreme Court.

He was recognised as Advocate of the Year at the Law Awards of Scotland 2017 and the Legal 500’s Junior Counsel of the Year at the Scottish Bar at the Legal 500 UK Awards 2019. He is ranked as a leading individual in the Chambers & Partners UK Bar Guide 2024 in seven practice areas which is the joint highest number of individual rankings for the Scottish Bar.

He has held a number of professional appointments. He is appointed as junior counsel to the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett. He is a member of the legal team investigating core political and administrative governance and decision-making in relation to the pandemic in Scotland. He was involved in high-profile public hearings in January 2024 in which key individuals involved in the pandemic response in Scotland gave evidence. He was also a Standing Junior counsel to the UK Government in Scotland and in April 2024, took on the role of Second Standing Junior to the Advocate General for Scotland. He has served as a full-time Advocate Depute at the Crown Office between 2021 and 2022.

He has been described in the Chambers & Partners UK Bar Guide as being “universally respected at the Bar, including by opponents and the judiciary” and a “very highly regarded practitioner” who has “the ear of the court”. The breadth of his expertise is recognised in his rankings in the legal directories. He is ranked in the Chambers & Partners UK Bar Guide 2024 for the following seven practice areas: (i) commercial dispute resolution; (ii) intellectual property; (iii) information technology; (iv) restructuring / insolvency; (v) professional negligence; (vi) administrative and public law; and (vii) civil liberties and human rights. He is also ranked in the Legal 500’s UK Bar Guide 2024 for commercial disputes and administrative and public law.

He acts in cases across the commercial spectrum. He is ranked in Band 1 in the Chambers & Partners UK Bar Guide and Tier 1 in the Legal 500 UK Bar Guide for commercial disputes. He is described in the Chambers & Partners Bar Guide 2024 as “an absolute standout advocate, a superb all-rounder who is great with clients” and whose “legal analysis is outstanding”. His expertise in professional negligence claims is recognised by Chambers & Partners who note that he has a “reputation for his handling of professional negligence claims, primarily against firms of solicitors”. He also undertakes a significant amount of work in the field of personal and corporate insolvency. Chambers & Partners note that “he is regularly instructed to act for administrators, liquidators and trustees, among other parties, in complex corporate and personal insolvency cases”.

He has developed a market-leading reputation for intellectual property disputes. He has been described by the Legal 500 as “The best all-round IP junior in Scotland”. Chambers & Partners has noted that he is “now regarded as the leading all-round IP junior in Scotland” and that he “continues to impress with his unrivalled knowledge of all issues of IP as well as his excellent manner with clients”. In addition to appearing in most of the leading IP cases in the Court of Session over the past decade, he has experience of conducting proceedings in the UK Intellectual Property Office. He also has a leading reputation for Information Technology disputes. He is the only junior counsel in Scotland recognised by Chambers & Partners for expertise in this practice area. Chambers & Partners note that he “garners critical acclaim in the market for his abilities in a host of cases including those involving the IP rights in games, television and related merchandise”. He has acted in high-profile cases in the gaming industry, including for Sony Interactive Entertainment and Naughty Dog in relation to the hack of servers and leak of footage from the “Last of Us Part II” video game before its release, and Rockstar Games in relation to modding of the software of the “Grand Theft Auto V” video game.

He has significant expertise in administrative and public law as well as civil liberties and human rights. He is ranked in both the Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 UK Bar directories for administrative and public law. In his role as a Standing Junior counsel to the UK Government in Scotland, he has advised and represented a number of UK government departments including the Cabinet Office, Home Office, Department of Work and Pensions, Department of Energy Security and Net Zero and the Ministry of Defence. He is described by Chambers & Partners as having a “busy public and administrative law practice, in which he acts mostly for central government”. He is also described as a “well-regarded civil liberties and human rights advocate” who is “particularly adept at judicial reviews concerning EU, human rights and immigration law”. He has significant experience of EU law, including having advised on the applicability of the sanctions regime to companies.

He has experience of alternative dispute resolution as counsel in mediations and arbitrations. He has been appointed as the arbitrator in commercial disputes. He also sits as a legal member of the Scottish Football Association’s Judicial Panel.

He is an alumnus of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP). The IVLP is the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange programme in which emerging foreign leaders in a variety of fields are invited to the U.S. to meet with professional counterparts and cultivate lasting relationships. In 2022, he spent time in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Portland and Montana meeting with various federal and state governmental bodies, NGOs and stakeholders in a human rights project on Advancing Minority Rights in Europe.

He is a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy of Scotland (YAS). YAS aims to bring together young professionals from all sectors to work together on projects that benefit Scotland and the world.

He is passionate about improving inclusion in the legal profession in Scotland. In 2017, he co-founded the Scottish Ethnic Minority Lawyers Association (SEMLA). SEMLA aims to improve ethnic diversity in the legal profession in Scotland. The group is supported by the Law Society of Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates. SEMLA has collaborated with some of the largest law firms and organisations across the UK on events and work placements for law students from ethnic minority backgrounds. In 2021, he was appointed to the Law Society of Scotland’s Racial Inclusion Group which undertook a systematic review of racial inclusion in the profession and produced a report with recommendations. In 2023, he was appointed to the Scottish Government’s Future of the Legal Profession short-life working group. The purpose of this group is to examine the evidence and propose improvements to address the challenges of recruitment and retention in the profession and to provide support for the planning, collaboration and improvement of legal services in Scotland.

He called to the Bar as the Faculty’s Lord Reid scholar for 2010/2011. This scholarship is awarded annually to the outstanding candidate to the Bar. He is a graduate of the University of Glasgow and the University of Cambridge.

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Laura-Anne van der Westhuizen KC

Laura-Anne van der Westhuizen KC has a civil practice with particular emphasis on commercial law, planning and environmental law and public law. She is currently ranked in five separate practice areas by Chambers UK and is Legal 500 Scotland Awards 2023 Silk of the Year. She was the Legal 500 Scottish Bar Junior of the Year in 2020.

Since calling to the bar in 2009 Laura-Anne has been instructed in a variety of commercial matters including company and insolvency matters, contractual disputes, shipping matters and tax appeals. She has represented both developers and planning authorities in planning matters, petitioners and respondents in a range of judicial review proceedings, and interested parties and core participants in fatal accident and public inquiries.

Laura-Anne has extensive advocacy experience. Before calling to the Scottish Bar she practised as an Advocate in South Africa and she called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2008. She has appeared in the UK Supreme Court, the Court of Session (Inner and Outer House), the Scottish Land Court, the Sheriff Court and various tribunals and inquiries.

She was on the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s panel of counsel from 2015 to 2023 and was a Standing Junior Counsel to the Scottish Government from 2015 to 2021.

In March 2022 Laura-Anne was appointed as Co-Lead Counsel to the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry.

Selected Cases

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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:

Reparation law, including personal injury and clinical negligence;
Criminal law, both prosecution and defence, in first instance work and appeals, including appearing in the Supreme Court, as well as a complex private prosecution application;
An interest in regulatory criminal matters, Health and Safety prosecutions, corporate financial crime and civil recovery proceedings;
Fatal Accident Inquiries and public inquiries, including an appointment as Counsel on a high profile public inquiry;
Property law and conveyancing;
Commercial law; and
Alternative dispute resolution, in particular arbitration, in which she holds professional qualifications and is working towards Chartered Arbitrator status. She is a Member of the Faculty Dispute Resolution Service and has been appointed as arbitrator for Motor Insurers’ Bureau cases for untraced and uninsured drivers.

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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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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Fiona Drysdale KC

Fiona Drysdale specialises in reparation, clinical negligence and public inquiries. She has considerable experience in catastrophic injury, fatal cases and cases involving children and young people. She is an Ad Hoc Advocate Depute and was a Standing Junior to the Scottish Government. She is a Faculty Skills Instructor and Quality Assurance Assessor. Her regulatory work includes acting as a Legal Assessor for the General Teaching Council for Scotland and as clerk to the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Faculty of Advocates. She is a member of both the Scottish Civil Justice Council and its Access to Justice Committee. She has served as acting Clerk of Faculty, Deputy Clerk of Faculty and Clerk to the Board of Examiners. Before calling to the bar, she worked as a solicitor in a large commercial firm, having trained there in Edinburgh and London. She has also worked as a legal translator for the European Court of Justice. Fiona was instructed as a standing junior counsel on behalf of the Scottish Government in Module 1 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on the Resilience and Preparedness of the United Kingdom. A 6-week hearing took place in London in June and July 2023 and The Inquiry Report was published on 18 July 2024.

Fiona is described in Chambers UK Bar 2023 as ”an experienced and extremely capable advocate with a thorough and practical approach to cases” and Legal 500 UK Bar 2023 “Fiona is very precise. She has the ear of the court, and is well respected by the bench.”

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Graeme Hawkes KC

Graeme Hawkes KC is an experienced commercial litigator, with a particular emphasis on commercial contracts, construction disputes, property and professional negligence. He was a solicitor in private practice for almost 10 years (Steedman Ramage and Brodies) and summer 2024 marks 21 years at the Bar. He also has a public law practice, having been a standing junior to the Scottish Government (2005-11) and regularly appearing in extradition cases on behalf of the Lord Advocate (including 2 Supreme Court appeals). As well as the high-quality advocacy skills to be expected of a senior used to appearing regularly in court, he brings common sense and a ‘can do’ attitude to cases. Agents admire his intellectual rigour, an ability to focus on the issues which really matter in a case and a determination to achieve the best result for the client. Graeme makes regular appearances at the Court of Session and sits as an Arbitrator.

Graeme is ranked in Chambers & Partners 2024 under Commercial Dispute Resolution.

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