In-house best practice course April 2019

Maree trained in Aberdeen, qualifying in 2003.  Following seven years working as a court solicitor in private practice Maree moved to the Scottish Social Services Council, the professional regulator of the social services workforce in Scotland.  Initially a senior solicitor managing a team of seven other solicitors, she is now the Director of Fitness to Practise, sits on the organisation’s Executive Management Team, and is responsible for a multi-disciplinary department of 80 people including 42 solicitors.

During this time the Scottish Social Services Council has grown from registering 35,000 people and holding 62 fitness to practise hearings a year, to registering over 100,000 people, holding 243 fitness to practise hearings a year with a further 50,000 people expected to join the register over the next three years.

Mhairi is Head of Legal and Corporate Governance at ENABLE Scotland, the country’s leading learning disability charity. As in-house counsel and Company Secretary, she has a diverse portfolio and directorate encompassing all legal and corporate governance roles, and which also includes the operation of ENABLE Trustee Service. ENABLE Trustee Service, a discretionary trust management arm of the organisation which Mhairi runs, has £12.2m under management for people who have a learning disability.

She is currently supporting the creation and delivery of a significant strategic partnership, and is a Trustee and Vice-Chair of the Board of University of Strathclyde Students’ Association.

Vlad has worked as an in-house lawyer since 2007. Vlad has worked for 3 local authorities (Midlothian, Moray and Aberdeenshire Councils) in various roles from Trainee Solicitor to Principal Solicitor. He is currently the Legal Services Manager and Data Protection Officer for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

Vlad is the vice President of the Society of Local Authority Lawyers and Administrators in Scotland (SOLAR) and is a Committee member of the In-house Lawyers Committee of the Law Society. He Tutors at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities and is a Chartered Manager (Chartered Management Institute).

Vlad has experience of providing legal assistance and decision making at high level within the above mentioned Councils, SOLAR and as a Director of a Refugee Charity (Refugee Survival Trust). These include advising a number of executive and non-executive Boards and Committees. He has also significant experience of building in-house legal teams.

Jennifer Sinclair is the Best Practice Advisor at the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission where she leads on sharing learning from complaints with the legal sector. As Best Practice Advisor, Jennifer uses that data to help practitioners and consumers understand how to avoid the most common problems and prevent complaints before they arise. Since being appointed to the role in 2015, she has developed a library of bespoke resources for legal practitioners on preventing complaints, dealing with complaints and the most common problems in specific areas of law. She has also developed a suite of consumer guides. Before joining the Oversight Team at the SLCC, Jennifer spent six years as a Case Investigator. She has previously worked at the Law Society of Scotland and holds an LLB from the University of Edinburgh. 

John has over 20 years’ experience in the investment market and is the CEO of Anderson Strathern Asset Management. He leads the strategic development of the company and is taking it through its next phase of growth.

Prior to joining Anderson Strathern Asset Management he held senior executive roles at Aberdeen Asset Management (AAM) and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP).

John originally trained as and worked as a lawyer in Aberdeen. He joined Aberdeen Asset Management (AAM) in 1997 where he was Head of Legal before joining Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) to hold director roles in Legal Risk and Compliance and then Sales and Marketing. He returned to Aberdeen Asset Management as Global Head of Distribution at AAM and was on the Group Executive Committee and had responsibility for a 500-plus team based across 30 offices in 24 countries.

John is also a non-executive Director on Royal London’s investment funds business and Dark Matter Distillers, and is Chairman of Water Witness International, an Edinburgh based charity.

Jamie is an Associate at Brodies LLP.  Having practised solely in dispute resolution since his traineeship, Jamie qualified as a Solicitor Advocate (Civil) in 2017.  Jamie is regularly instructed by both commercial organisations and private individuals in a wide variety of matters including debt recovery, insolvency matters and contractual disputes.  The 2019 edition of the Legal 500 lists Jamie as a Recommended Lawyer in the field of Property Litigation.  Jamie frequently advises on the obtaining of urgent and emergency court orders, protective diligence and the enforcement of Scottish and foreign court orders.  In addition to litigated matters, Jamie has acted in local and international arbitrations, appeals of arbitral awards to the Court of Session and the enforcement of foreign arbitration awards in Scotland.  Jamie is a member of the Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet and a committee member of the Society of Solicitor Advocates.

Beth Anderson joined the Scoeity as the head of in-house member engagement in December 2015.

Beth’s role involves representing and supporting in-house solicitors, whether they work in the public or private sectors and right across Scotland. She is also secretary to the In-house Lawyers' Committee.

Beth trained as a solicitor at Biggart Baillie LLP. She qualified in 2008 into the commercial property team. In 2011 Beth moved to Hong Kong where she worked in-house for Asian based conglomerate, Jardine Matheson. She is well placed to understand both the challenges and the rewards of working in-house.