The best performing individuals, teams and firms in the Scottish legal profession were revealed at the national awards celebration for lawyers held in Glasgow last night.

520 guests celebrated at the 16th annual Scottish Legal Awards following a record high volume of entries in the competition’s history. 

The ultimate award of the night, Firm of the Year was presented to Digby Brown after the judging panel praised the firm’s continued success and impressive results.  They were joined in celebration by Dundee-based Blackadders who collected two awards including Managing Partner of the Year presented to Johnston Clark for delivering a three-year growth strategy for the firm.

The Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by The Times was presented to Professor Lorne Crerar, Chairman and co-founding partner of Harper Macleod for his thirty year career at the forefront of Scottish law.  He has served as an independent adviser to a number of public sector bodies and as Chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise. He has been Professor Emeritus of Law at Glasgow University since 2015.   Accepting the award, Professor Crerar commented;

"I am truly honoured to receive this award and would like to thank the judging panel for deeming me worthy of joining such an esteemed list of recipients. It has been my good fortune to find a career that I love and through which I have had so many opportunities open before me. I have also been very fortunate to work with great clients and many brilliant colleagues in law, in sport and in all my other roles without whom any achievements of mine could not have been realised. To this day I am as passionate about Scots law and the Scottish legal profession as ever and on evenings such as this see every reason why it will have a very bright future."

25 awards were presented on the night to individuals and teams.  The highly regarded Lawyer of the Year Award was presented to Jill Sinclair from DWF as head of the Counter Fraud Team, a new department created three years ago.  Her work has made significant impact.

Other winners on the night included Glasgow-based firm Livingstone Brown who collected team awards for their work in the areas of family law and criminal defence, whilst the competition’s new in-house legal team awards were presented to the Royal Bank of Scotland (commercial) and The City of Edinburgh Council’s Legal Services division (public sector).  The in-house lawyer of the year was awarded to joint winners Maree Allison from the Scottish Social Services Council, based in Dundee and Kenny Robertson from Royal Bank of Scotland.

The independent programme is presided over by a large expert judging panel, chaired by Shonaig Macpherson.

She commented;

“The Scottish legal system is one of the best in the world.  We have outstanding lawyers, innovative businesses and very many successful firms.  The Scottish Legal Awards serve as an annual reminder of the achievements of the year for all of the finalists. We are delighted to be highlighting the excellence that occurs every day.  I extend my congratulations to all the finalists and winners and encourage them to take time to celebrate their achievements.” 

The awards are operated in support of It’s Good 2 Give and LawScot Foundation.