17th Annual Scottish Legal Awards launches 2020 Programme

The national independent awards programme for the Scottish legal industry has launched its 2020 competition.

The 17th annual Scottish Legal Awards will recognise the achievements of a wide range of individuals, teams and firms working in Scottish law and will be celebrated in March 2020.

Entries are now open in 19 categories which reflect the broad work of Scotland’s 12,000 practising lawyers in house public and private sector, and private sector firms in every major discipline of the law.   Property, litigation, corporate and criminal defence are some of the key sectors represented.

A judging panel of 12 highly experienced and highly regarded legal professionals will be chaired for the fifth year by Shonaig Macpherson CBE, an adviser to many organisations and former senior partner of one of Scotland’s largest law firms. She commented;

“The Scottish Legal Awards continues to be Scotland’s only independent awards programme to promote excellence in Scottish law.  It is a privilege to be part of the very thorough judging process involved and I look forward to discussing the work and achievements from firms and individuals the length and breadth of the country.”

She welcomes two new judges to the panel; Dr Sarah Hendry, Senior Lecturer and Head of Law School at the University of Dundee and Philip Rodney, former Chair of Burness Paull and now founder of Rimalower Consulting.

The competition is free to enter and applications should be submitted before 12 noon on Wednesday 13th November.   The judging panel will meet in December and the finalists will be announced in early January. 

The 2020 awards is also an important fundraising event for two appointed charities; Lawscot Foundation which supports young people in studying law in Scotland and It’s Good 2 Give, which supports families who have children with cancer.

The winners will be revealed at the annual awards celebration which takes place at the DoubleTree Hotel in Glasgow on Thursday 19th March 2020.