The future of commercial dispute resolution

Lord Carloway was appointed as Lord President of the Court of Session in December 2015 and was installed as the new head of Scotland's judiciary in January 2016. He has been a Senator since February 2000 and was appointed to the Second Division of the Inner House in August 2008, before becoming Lord Justice Clerk in August 2012.

He is a graduate of Edinburgh University (LLB Hons) and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1977. He served as an Advocate Depute from 1986 to 1989 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1990. From 1994 until his appointment as a Judge he was Treasurer of the Faculty of Advocates.

He is an assistant editor of “Green’s Litigation Styles” and contributed the chapters on “Court of Session Practice” to the Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia and “Expenses” in Court of Session Practice.

Lord Carloway was the joint editor of “Parliament House Portraits: the Art Collection of the Faculty of Advocates” and is a former president of the Scottish Arts Club.

More recently, he led a review of the law and practice in light of the United Kingdom Supreme Court's decision in the case of Cadder v HM Advocate. His report into criminal law and practice was published in November 2011.

Roddy became Secretary to the Scottish Civil Justice Council in September 2013 when he was appointed as Legal Secretary to the Lord President.

As Secretary to the Council, Roddy oversees the work of the Council and provides an important link between the Council and the Court of Session in relation to the preparation of draft rules

Rachel Grant is Manolete’s Regional Associate Director leading operations in Scotland.

Rachel has over 25 years of experience in insolvency law and joined Manolete from Brodies LLP. Rachel has a top tier ranking and has been inducted into the Legal 500 Hall of Fame.

Rachel is a member of the R3 General Technical Committee and Scottish Technical Committee (which she chaired for over ten years). She is a member and former chair of the Law Society Insolvency Accreditation Panel. She was a member of the Law Society of Scotland’s Corporate, Banking and Insolvency Committee for over 20 years and represented the Law Society on the Joint Insolvency Committee.

Iain is a partner in Brodies’ litigation team and advises clients in relation to a broad range of UK and international commercial disputes with an emphasis on IT & telecoms, energy & corporate disputes and banking and financial services litigation.

He has an LLM in IT & Telecommunications Law and has represented clients in relation to various IT related disputes including outsourcing, domain name, online defamation and IT supplier disputes. Iain has acted for banks and financial services institutions in relation to high profile and high value professional negligence, misrepresentation, contractual and pensions disputes and has acted in a wide variety of corporate litigation including warranty claims, unfair prejudice petitions and related shareholder disputes.

Iain is a solicitor-advocate and his practice is primarily in the UK Courts. He is, however, an enthusiastic proponent of alternative dispute resolution, with recent experience of mediation, arbitration (including energy arbitration) and expert determination (both financial and technical). His clients value his friendly and approachable manner coupled with his realistic commercial approach to the issues facing them.

John Mulholland is a criminal law consultant at Falkirk-based Marshall Wilson Law Group and joined the Law Society of Scotland council in 2012, representing constituents in Alloa, Falkirk, Linlithgow and Stirling.

John is Chair of the Board and sits on the Appeals and Reviews Subcommittee. He is the former convener of both the Nominations committee and the Finance Committee and is the former Treasurer.

Lindy Patterson QC specialises in international arbitration, adjudication and other forms of ADR. She operates in the construction, energy and natural resources and general commercial sectors.

She acts regularly as arbitrator and adjudicator and has extensive experience as counsel and as tribunal member/chair. She operates in many jurisdictions, both civil and common law, and with a variety of governing laws.

She has chaired a number of dispute boards, both ad hoc and standing, across the world and plays an active role in promoting dispute avoidance by these means. She is currently President of DRBF (Region 2).

She is also qualified in Scots law and having practiced there for many years is well versed in civil as well as common law systems.

Lindy Patterson QC was a partner/solicitor advocate with CMS Cameron McKenna until April 2017 heading up a team of dispute lawyers.

Colin Hutton has over 20 years' experience in dispute avoidance and resolution. He has acted for a wide range of clients and has significant experience working with financial services and energy sector clients. He also advises on shareholder disputes and disputes relating to corporate transactions.

Colin specialises in the project management of the dispute resolution process and he advises clients on fraud issues and Bribery Act investigations. He is a keen advocate of alternative dispute resolution and regularly uses mediation to effectively resolve disputes.

Alun leads Anderson Strathern’s top-rated employment unit and also heads its education group. He is lead partner for a number of the firm’s public sector and education clients. As well as representing clients in the Employment Tribunal, Alun is a practising mediator and is often asked to assist parties in conflict to reach mediated solutions to the issues they face.

He is currently the Chair of Scottish Mediation and co-chaired their recent report “Bringing Mediation into the Mainstream” with John Sturrock QC.

Using the experience gained over 30 years as a solicitor (during the last 20 of which he has been accredited as a specialist in Employment Law) Alun seeks to help his clients find ways to resolve their conflicts. He is especially aware of the challenges that public sector clients face and their need to manage organisations under intense public scrutiny whilst balancing reputational risk in a context of ever restricted public expenditure. Alun is able to address the issues that confront organisations dealing with change and believes in the importance of engaging and consulting collectively.