Douglas Ross KC

Year of Call: 1998

07739 639257
douglas.ross@advocates.org.uk
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Very concise and articulate in court. Just exceptional.

Chambers & Partners UK Bar Guide 2017

Douglas Ross KC is a graduate of the universities of Glasgow and Cambridge. Prior to calling to the Bar in 1998, he spent three years as a lecturer in law and eight years as a legal adviser at the United Nations, serving in Gaza, Vienna and Sarajevo. In addition to appearing in many important cases in the Court of Session, he has appeared in the Supreme Court, House of Lords, High Court of Justiciary, Sheriff Court, Scottish Land Court, Lands Tribunal for Scotland, Employment Tribunal, Employment Appeal Tribunal, Mental Health Tribunal and the Health Professions Council.

Douglas was appointed as a Standing Junior Counsel to the then Scottish Executive in 2000, in which capacity he has been instructed in cases in a wide range of areas, notably administrative law, judicial review and human rights. Other areas in which he has substantial experience include medical negligence and personal injuries cases in which he has been regularly instructed for both pursuers and defenders. From 2008 – 2009, he was instructed as Crown Counsel in the second Lockerbie appeal. He was again a member of the Crown team in the third appeal in 2020-2021.

Douglas has appeared at numerous Fatal Accident Inquiries. He represented the Scottish Government at the lengthy inquiry into multiple fatalities in Rosepark Care Home fire and has appeared for health boards at inquiries relating to deaths in hospital.

In 2010, he was appointed Second Standing Junior Counsel to the Scottish Government, then First Standing Junior Counsel from 2012 to 2016 when he took silk. From 2014 to 2016, Douglas was the only Scottish lawyer on the A List of the Attorney General’s Panel of Public International Law Counsel for the UK Government.

Since being appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2016, Douglas’s principal areas of practice have continued to be in judicial review, human rights, medical negligence and personal injuries. He is listed in the Chambers and Partners UK Bar Guide in Administrative and Public Law, Civil Liberties and Human Rights and Clinical Negligence.  From March to September 2022, he served as Counsel to the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry.

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