*Central Law Training Scotland event*
Speakers include Ampersand’s Susanne Tanner QC speaking on “The use of Arbitration in Personal Injury cases”.
Full details of the other speakers and how to sign up on the CLT website here.
The Scottish Arbitration Centre held its annual arbitrator training day in Edinburgh on 7 November, which featured Ampersand’s Usman Tariq.
The event, which was sponsored by FTI Consulting, saw delegates from various professions attend, with speakers including Sir David Edward QC, Honorary President of the Centre; Lindy Paterson QC, Chair of Domestic Subcommittee of Centre’s Arbitral Appointment Committee and Barrister at 39 Essex Chambers; Leigh Herd, Honorary Secretary of CIArb Scottish Branch; Craig Tevendale, Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills; and Fiona Menzies, Business and Development Manager at the Centre.
The focus for the afternoon workshops was intellectual property disputes, delivered by John Mackenzie, Partner, Shepherd and Wedderburn, and Usman Tariq, Advocate at Ampersand Advocates. They said:
“We were delighted to deliver a workshop at the Scottish Arbitration Centre’s Annual Arbitrator Training Day to promote the use of arbitration in IP / IT disputes.
While IP disputes have traditionally been litigated in the courts, there is increasing use of arbitration for IP disputes around the world. There are several advantages of arbitrating IP disputes in Scotland which will appeal to both Scottish and international businesses.
Confidentiality and the need for an early decision from an informed decision-maker can be of paramount importance to businesses, particularly in the fast-moving world of technology. Arbitration will appeal to businesses as they can resolve their dispute without fear of putting commercially sensitive material in the public domain which can happen in court proceedings. In contrast to the trend in England, the parties retain absolute anonymity in Scotland even if court proceedings follow the arbitration. Arbitration can offer the parties control over the procedure and an earlier decision than in the court process together with extremely limited rights of appeal which provides the parties more certainty about the duration of the process and finality in the dispute. The parties also have the autonomy to choose their decision-maker and can appoint an arbitrator with the necessary expertise and qualifications for their dispute. If parties choose to arbitrate, most of the remedies that are available in court proceedings will be available to the arbitrator and the parties also retain the right to seek interim orders, such as interim interdict (an interim injunction), by making an application to the court at any time during the arbitration process. All of these factors will appeal to businesses as well as third party funders. In addition, arbitration can be particularly effective for resolving international IP disputes as it can avoid multi-jurisdictional litigation and arbitral awards can be enforced around the world.
Whilst not every IP case will be suitable for arbitration, many disputes are suitable and advisers are encouraged to consider whether arbitration offers their clients the best prospects of an efficient and beneficial outcome to their disputes.”
Andrew Mackenzie, Chief Executive of the Centre, who chaired the event, said:
“We are delighted to have hosted another successful arbitrator training day. I am particularly pleased that we continue to attract a mix of professionals to our annual event, with advocates, solicitors and surveyors exchanging experiences in best practice.
It was particularly valuable to explore the advantages of arbitrating IP disputes in Scotland, and I am grateful to John and Usman for all their input with the event. Scotland’s arbitration system has provision for breach of confidence and also anonymity for parties in respect to any reference to our Court, meaning that sensitive disputes that are subject to Scottish arbitration have the benefit of privacy, unlike in many other jurisdictions. Therefore, I hope our unique system will attract more arbitration to Scotland.”
Ampersand’s Lisa Henderson QC and Susanne Tanner QC have been appointed as Global Ambassadors for the Scottish Arbitration Centre.
Find out more here – https://www.cdr-news.com/categories/people-and-firms/9466-lidw19-flying-the-flag-for-scottish-arbitration
Ampersand Advocate, Laurence Kennedy, has been admitted as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. This is an internationally recognised accreditation reserved for those who have demonstrated a high degree of skill in all aspects of arbitration practice and award writing.
Laurence is an experienced tribunal judge and has more than 20 years’ experience of conducting cases in the civil courts. This makes him ideally placed to manage and determine a wide range of civil disputes falling within his broad field of expertise.
Laurence has been an Advocate since 2000 but is based in central Scotland and regularly practises in Aberdeen, Inverness and Glasgow as well as the Northern isles. He sees arbitration as providing an increasingly attractive alternative to litigating in the civil courts.
“A well conducted arbitration combines the best case management practices of the commercial court with the flexibility and informality typically found in judicial tribunals. Add the ability of an arbitrator to engage independent experts as part of the decision making process, and to award costs based upon full commercial rates, then the benefits of arbitration are obvious.
“Many experienced litigators may be reluctant to try arbitration because it is unfamiliar but that should not put them off. The legal framework is very straightforward, there are no rigid rules or practices to follow and the arbitrator will direct the parties on what they are expected to do at each stage of the process.”
Laurence is available to act as arbitrator throughout the whole of the UK and internationally. He is a member of Ampersand Advocates and operates his own website at www.laurencekennedy.com
Kathryn Ferguson joined Ampersand in 2018 and has completed Paralegal qualifications in both Conveyancing and Wills and Executries. Prior to joining the team Kathryn worked for a global law firm supporting the Commercial Real Estate and Litigation teams.
Kathryn brings a can-do approach and is always willing to assist in all aspects of instructing counsel.
Usman Tariq KC has extensive experience of high-value and complex commercial disputes and public law litigation. He is 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” and is “very popular with the judiciary”. His core areas of practice include contractual, intellectual property, information technology, insolvency and professional negligence disputes. He has acted in some of the largest financial claims ever in the Scottish courts as well as in most of the reported intellectual property cases over the past decade in Scotland. He also specialises in administrative and public law where he has acted for and advised both Scottish and UK governments, including on issues as varied as devolution, tax and environmental impact assessments. He has appeared at all levels of the Scottish court system, including the UK Supreme Court. He also has experience of alternative dispute resolution having acted as counsel in mediations and arbitrations as well as the arbitrator in commercial disputes.
The breadth of his experience and expertise is recognised in the Chambers & Partners UK Bar Guide 2026 in which he is ranked as a leading individual in eight practice areas, the highest number of individual rankings for any advocate at the Scottish Bar. He is ranked as a leading senior counsel in the following eight practice areas in the current Chambers UK Bar Guide: (i) commercial dispute resolution; (ii) intellectual property; (iii) information technology; (iv) media law; (v) restructuring / insolvency; (vi) professional negligence; (vii) administrative and public law; and (viii) civil liberties and human rights. He is also ranked in the Legal 500 Guide 2026 for (i) commercial litigation; (ii) administrative and public law; and (iii) crime and regulatory. He also has experience in developing areas of law, including EU and UK sanctions law, and in relation to new technologies, such as cryptocurrencies. In 2025, he gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament on behalf of the Faculty of Advocates in relation to the Digital Assets (Scotland) Bill. As junior counsel, 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.
Comments in the Chambers UK Bar Guide 2026 include “Usman Tariq has an extraordinary combination of commercial awareness, pragmatism and legal ability”; “Usman is a standout. He is really bright, analytical and unbelievably calm”; “Usman is exceptionally good with clients”; “Usman is involved in all the big cases. He is great. The judges really like him; he knows how to appeal to the ear of the court. He’s really well prepared and you know the judges listen to him”; and “Usman is exceptionally talented”.
He is highly respected within the profession which has led to him holding a large number of professional and public appointments as well as leadership roles. He was appointed as counsel to the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett for three years. He was a member of the legal team investigating core political and administrative governance and decision-making in relation to the pandemic. He was also a Standing Junior counsel to the UK Government in Scotland for nine years and latterly served as Second Standing Junior to the Advocate General for Scotland before his appointment as silk. He has served as a full-time Advocate Depute at the Crown Office prosecuting serious crime between 2021 and 2022. He is the Chair of JUSTICE Scotland, a cross-party law reform charity that works to reform the justice system across the UK. He is appointed by the Lord President as the advocate member of the Scottish Civil Justice Council, the statutory body responsible for keeping the civil justice system in Scotland under review and making recommendations on developments and changes to the justice system.
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 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) and the RSE’s Justice Leaders Network. YAS brings together young professionals from all sectors to work together on projects that benefit Scotland and the world.
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.
