Douglas Ross KC
Douglas Ross 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, Zagreb 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, becoming Second Standing Junior in 2010 and First Standing Junior in 2012. From 2014 to 2016, he was the only Scottish lawyer appointed to the A List of the Attorney General’s Panel of Public International Law Counsel for the UK Government. 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. He was instructed as Crown Counsel in the second and third Lockerbie appeals in, respectively, 2008-9 and 2020.
Douglas has appeared at numerous Fatal Accident Inquiries. He represented the Scottish Government at the lengthy inquiry into multiple fatalities in the fire at Rosepark Care Home and has appeared for health boards at inquiries in relation to deaths in hospital. He is instructed by NSS Scotland in the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry. 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.
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Graham Maciver
Graham Maciver works primarily throughout the fields of public and administrative law, including principally judicial review, human rights and immigration law. Graham’s other areas of practice include commercial and regulatory law (directors disqualification and tax), personal injury and international law.
Graham has been a Standing Junior to the Advocate General for Scotland since 2012 and was appointed to the newly created post of Second Standing Junior to the Advocate General for Scotland in 2021, and now First Standing Junior in 2024.He has been on the Public International Law Panel to the Attorney General since 2014 and Equality and Human Rights Commission Panel of Counsel since 2019. Junior Counsel to Scottish Hospitals Inquiry since 2023.
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Jamie Dawson KC
Jamie Dawson KC called to the Bar in 2004 and took silk in 2020. He has a wide ranging civil practice involving both appearance and advisory work. He has experience of appearing in both the Inner and Outer House of the Court of Session, the High Court of Justiciary and sheriff courts as well as tribunals and public inquiries. The mainstay of his practice is medical and dental negligence cases (pursuer and defender) and public inquiries. He also works in the field of personal injury (pursuer and defender) and defamation and handles insurance and commercial disputes, trust and property cases.
Jamie was instructed as lead Counsel on behalf of the Scottish infected and affected core participants in the UK’s largest ever public inquiry at that time, the Infected Blood Inquiry. The final report was published in May 2024.
Jamie was appointed to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry legal team. He, along with 10 other KC’s, support Hugo Keith KC, Lead Counsel to the Inquiry, and Martin Smith, Solicitor to the Inquiry, with the preparation and delivery of the Inquiry’s investigative work. He lead Module 2A, Core UK decision-making and political governance – Scotland.
As a junior Counsel, he was recommended in legal directories for his expertise in clinical negligence and personal injury work for several years. Amongst the comments on his practice were the following:
• “Fantastic at dealing with complex medical evidence and technical details.” (Legal 500 (2020), personal injury and clinical negligence work, Band 1)
• “A committed advocate who has vast experience defending clinical negligence cases. His wide-ranging caseload spans such circumstances as birth injuries, dental malpractice and fatal accidents. He also has experience in mental health and cancer diagnosis cases.
Strengths: “He is very good at getting into the details in clinical negligence cases.”(Chambers & Partners (2020), clinical negligence work)
• Strengths: “He is very good at picking up on things and running with them.” “I would describe him as very proactive. He was very good in the case I was on and made a very positive contribution to its conclusion.” (Chambers & Partners (2017), personal injury work)
• “He’s good, thorough and professional.” (Chambers & Partners (2016), clinical negligence work)
• “He is extremely impressive and very helpful too.” (Chambers & Partners (2016), personal injury work)
• Expertise: “He’s very thorough and goes into a lot of depth; his advocacy skills are very good.” (Chambers & Partners (2014), personal injury work)
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Paul Reid KC
Since calling to the Bar in 2011, Paul Reid has built a strong practice anchored around professional liability and public law. In 2020, he was appointed the First Standing Junior Counsel to the Scottish Government (having first been appointed a Standing Junior in 2015). In that capacity he has advised the Scottish Government in respect of a broad range of public law matters and represented them in numerous high profile cases of constitutional significance (e.g. the 2022 Referendum Reference to the Supreme Court). In that capacity, he has also represented the UK Government before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He has particular experience in respect of prison-related litigation (including several high profile Fatal Accident Inquiries following deaths in custody) and planning-related litigation (including compensation claims before the Lands Tribunal and planning appeals to the Inner House).
Paul also has particular interest and experience in professional liability and regulation (especially claims against solicitors, surveyors and medical professionals). As well as conducting litigation on behalf of professionals and professions, he has appeared before fitness to practice panels (medical profession), the Scottish FA’s judicial panel (sporting) and has represented legal professionals seeking leave to appeal decisions of the SLCC. He has appeared in a number of regulatory appeals to the Court of Session (both following substantive fitness to practice proceedings and in respect of extensions of interim orders). In that respect, he has experience represented both professionals and regulatory bodies. Paul is regularly instructed by the NHS in Scotland to advise on a wide range of matters, including clinical negligence claims, mental health issues and advice in relation to various issues of statutory and regulatory compliance, including advise in respect of medico-legal ethical issues. He was instructed by the NHS in their successful defence of the Scottish mesh litigation and acts on behalf a firm of engineers in another group litigation before the Court of Session (the Watling Street litigation). He represented the driver of the Glasgow bin lorry in the Fatal Accident Inquiry into the December 2014 disaster. He has also represented parties before the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry and the UK Infected Blood Inquiry. Although predominantly instructed on behalf of defenders, Paul also has experience of pursing a range of claims (professional liability, commercial and property). He regularly appears before the Court of Session and other tribunals.
Paul has taught public law at the University of Edinburgh since 2004, regularly lecturing and tutoring on various aspects of the subject. He has a particular interest in judicial review, surveillance powers and electoral law. In July 2024, he was appointed an Honorary Teaching Fellow at Edinburgh Law School and he will join the Editorial Board of the leading journal, Public Law, in January 2025. Paul regularly publishes articles and blogs on public law and has written the third and fourth editions of the Green’s Concise Guide to Public Law (published in October 2015 and August 2020, respectively). He also regularly speaks at seminars on public law and professional liability.
Paul is ranked in five different areas by Chambers and Partners (2024): Administrative and Public Law, Clinical Negligence, Commercial Dispute Resolution, Product Liability and Professional Negligence.
In 2022, Paul was appointed as a part-time Sheriff and in 2023 he was appointed King’s Counsel.
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Ross G. Anderson
Ross is ranked by Chambers & Partners (2025) as a Band 1 junior for Commercial Dispute Resolution, Company, Real Estate Litigation, and Restructuring/ Insolvency. He is also ranked for Tax. He is ranked in the Legal 500 (2025) as a Band 1 Leading Junior in Commercial Disputes, Administrative and Public Law, and Property and Construction.
“Ross is one of the best non-silks. He gives clients a lot of assurance and he is also seen as one of the leading advocates in all of Scotland” (Chambers 2025)
Ross is one of the best juniors at the Scottish Bar. He’s a joy to work with and there is no case which is too complex” (Chambers 2025)
“Ross is a go-to counsel for property disputes. He is very accessible, bright and the quality of his written work is very good. In my view, he has the experience to deal alone with complex matters.” (Chambers, 2025)
“Ross has an ability to crack on with complex factual matters and really understand the factual issues, which then allows him to be one step ahead in relation to the legal arguments.” (Chambers, 2025)
“He is a first-rate junior counsel – a go-to advocate in commercial, property and sports disputes. He is excellent to work with.” “He is incredibly intellectually sharp, and his opinions and analysis are first rate.” (Chambers 2023)
“Ross is excellent with clients; he has a brilliant ability to appease and calm clients while also being firm, decisive and straight-talking. He is very thorough and has a fantastic sense of commerciality. He is very able on his feet and he has got an amazing ability to get to grips with vast quantities of documentation and huge amounts of detail” (Chambers, 2021, Commercial Dispute Resolution)
“Highly intelligent, great with clients and very approachable.” (Chambers, Commercial Dispute Resolution, 2020)
“Very thorough and gets to grips with complex issues quickly. He’s so commercial, practical in his approach and proactive. He is hugely impressive.” (Chambers 2020)
“Very impressive ability to translate academic skills into practical advice to clients. Good on his feet as well” (Chambers, 2019) “He’s a junior with an extremely good sense of commerciality and pragmatism and has an excellent manner when dealing with solicitors and clients.” “He’s very good on particularly complex technical disputes.” (Chambers, 2018)
Ross’s practice focuses on commercial dispute resolution, company and insolvency law, property law, public law, trusts and tax. Ross is a standing junior counsel to the UK Government (having been assigned to HM Revenue & Customs from 2015-2024). He appears regularly in UK tribunals as well as in the Court of Session.
Selected cases:
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Vinit Khurana KC
Vinit Khurana KC is the only practising member of the Scottish Bar dually qualified in law and medicine. He has the unique distinction of having practised as a medical General Practitioner for over a decade as well as being an Advocate since 1999. He took silk in 2018.
Vinit has a wide ranging practice involving both appearance and advisory work. He has experience of acting for and against private individuals and corporations. He also has experience of acing for and against public bodies. He regularly acts for and against health boards in professional negligence and personal injury cases.
Vinit specialises in all aspects of Medical Law including clinical negligence, judicial review, professional disciplinary matters, regulatory work and mental health. He is one of the most experienced practitioners at the Scottish Bar in relation to Fatal Accident Inquiries having appeared at over 20 such Inquiries since 2000. Since calling in 1999 his medical knowledge has proven to be a valuable asset in a wide variety of cases. His instructions have encompassed both civil and criminal work. Examples of the breadth of his instructions include: fraud cases brought by Health Boards against Optometrists before the NHS Tribunal; the chairing of the NHS Classification Appeal Committee in respect of disciplinary matters; appearances on behalf of the National Appeal Panel in judicial review petitions for entry to the pharmaceutical list; and advisory work in connection with many other matters related to the provision of healthcare including competition law issues in the provision of dispensing services by pharmacists and GPs, optometric and pharmaceutical services regulation, contractual arrangements between Health Boards and GP primary care providers, mental health matters and ECHR issues in the areas of organ donation and treatment refusal.
Vinit was the Chair of the Faculty of Advocates Sub-Committee which responded to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the reform of mental health legislation. He has also responded on behalf of the Faculty of Advocates to Scottish Government consultations on organ donation and transplant. He is currently a member of the Faculty Committee that oversees all of the Faculty’s responses to Scottish Government consultations.
Throughout his career Vinit has been prepared to work in new areas. He enjoys new challenges. He is a conscientious and hard worker. This has allowed him to gain an understanding of the particular circumstances of and the legal background to the cases in which he has been instructed. As well as appearing in court in complex, high profile and urgent matters, he regularly provides written advice on a wide variety of matters.
Vinit was called to the Bar of England & Wales in 2019. He can accept instructions in England and Wales via his clerks at Whitestone Chambers.
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