Isla Davie KC
Isla Davie’s practice covers a range of medical negligence, professional negligence, commercial law, property and personal injury disputes, in particular catastrophic injury. She is regularly instructed on behalf of insurers, public bodies, professional bodies and individuals. She is often asked to speak on medical negligence and property law.
Isla studied law at Edinburgh and Paris-Sud. She joined the Bar in 2004 after seven years’ experience as a solicitor with commercial firms and took silk in 2019. She practices in civil law, being regularly instructed in interdicts, debates, proofs, civil jury trials and Fatal Accident Inquiries.
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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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Jamie Gardiner
Jamie Gardiner specialises in cases combining legal and financial analysis.
On the legal side, Jamie has broad experience across commercial disputes. He particularly enjoys technical points of contractual / statutory interpretation – and finding them in factually ‘messy’ cases. From 2005-2007 he practised as a Barrister in London, so is able to advise on questions of English law.
On the financial side, he likes spreadsheets, cross-examining accountants and insolvency practitioners, complex corporate structures, quantifying loss, valuing companies and interrogating financial statements.
Jamie developed these skills as a Business Consultant. From 2007 to 2015, he worked (latterly as Director) in Accenture’s Trading, Investment and Optimisation team. He led projects in the energy, financial services and beverages sectors. His clients included BP, British Airways, Diageo and a major bank.
Jamie has an interest in animal law. He sits on the Advisory Board of the Animal Law Foundation and is interested in finding ways to better enforce farm animal welfare legislation.
Selected cases:
(Where the names of parties have not appeared in published opinions, initials have been substituted)
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Jennifer Nicholson-White
Acting for both pursuers and defenders in a wide range of personal injury litigation, Jenny Nicholson-White has a particular interest and expertise in clinical negligence and is ranked as leading junior by both Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500 in personal injury and clinical negligence.
Her recent work includes complex cases involving brain injury in road traffic accidents, birth injury cases including cerebral palsy, amputations as a result of alleged clinical negligence, defending GPs in cases involving allegedly negligent loss of sight in a young man and loss of hearing in a young woman respectively, acting for families seeking damages for the loss of a loved one due to alleged negligence, acting for insurers to defend claims under the Damages (Scotland) Act 2011, representing dentists before Interim Orders Committees in advance of Fitness to Practice Hearings, acting for families in secondary victim claims arising out of alleged clinical negligence, representing nurses as instructed for the RCN, representing the SPS and Forestry and Land Scotland as instructed by the Scottish Government and acting for health boards in defence of various allegations of surgical error and delayed diagnosis.
In January 2022, Jenny was appointed a Standing Junior to the Scottish Government. In that capacity, she has acquired further experience in public law and been instructed in several cases raised in the Lands Tribunal of Scotland. In both the UK and Scottish Covid-19 Public Inquiries she is one of six junior Counsel, led by Geoff Mitchell K.C. representing the Scottish Ministers.
In August 2021, Jenny was appointed an ad hoc Advocate Depute and has experience in that capacity of prosecuting serious sexual offending in the High Court.
Jenny was shortlisted for Scottish Junior Advocate of the Year 2020 by the Legal 500
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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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