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Areas of expertise

Professional information

  • 2025 – 2026: Secondment as Director of Litigation and Senior Legal Counsel, Diageo North America, Inc
  • 2019 – present: Course Organiser, lecturer and tutor on the Civil Court Practice, Commercial Litigation and Intellectual Property in Business courses, Diploma in Professional Legal Practice, University of Edinburgh
  • 2024: Appointed Standing Junior to the Scottish Government
  • 2023-2024: Junior Counsel to the UK Covid Inquiry (Module 2A)
  • 2023: Appointed to Law Society of Scotland Intellectual Property Sub-Committee
  • 2020-2021: Devil (Faculty Scholar), Devilmasters: Usman Tariq KC, Jonathan Broome, Tony Lenehan KC
  • 2018-2020: Associate, Brodies LLP
  • 2014-2018: Solicitor, Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP
  • LLB (Hons), First Class, University of Edinburgh (2011) and Diploma in Professional Legal Practice, University of Edinburgh (2012)
Professional experience

Andrew’s practice focuses on high-value commercial disputes with complex legal, scientific and technical subject matter. He is particularly adept at handling large scale, complex, and document heavy litigations. Andrew is currently advising on a number of multimillion pound commercial cases which raise novel issues of fact and law.

Andrew has a specialism in group litigation/class actions. In 2025, he undertook a secondment at Diageo North America, Inc in the role of Director of Litigation and Senior Legal Counsel. He advised on multiple opt-out class action lawsuits in the USA and Canada. This role gives Andrew a unique perspective on large scale group litigation, having acted in Scottish “opt-in” actions and the American “opt-out” system. His group litigation experience includes product liability, misrepresentation, personal injury, data protection, and competition claims.

Andrew also has significant expertise in intellectual property, technology, data protection and media law. He is recognised as one of the leading intellectual property juniors in Scotland. He has built up a substantial knowledge of the law in relation to intellectual property rights and has advised many well-known brands on infringement, validity and ownership of intellectual property.

Andrew was appointed as Standing Junior to the Scottish Government in 2024.

Andrew was called to the Bar in 2021 as Faculty Scholar. Prior to joining the Bar, Andrew was a commercial litigation solicitor at leading commercial law firms. He was qualified as a solicitor in both Scotland and in England & Wales.

Notable cases
  • Chalmers v Diageo Scotland Limited – Junior counsel for Diageo Scotland Limited in long running nuisance claim in the Court of Session. The pursuers claim that ethanol from bonded warehouses is causing blackening on their properties. The claim involved a considerable amount of specialist scientific evidence.
  • Biffa Waste Services Limited v Scottish Ministers [2026] CSOH 3 – Junior counsel for Biffa in £55,000,000 claim against the Scottish Ministers arising from the failure of the Scottish Deposit Return Scheme.
  • Walker v Scottish Ministers [2025] CSOH 3 – sole counsel for the Scottish Ministers in a judicial review concerning consent for a nationally important power line. Successfully defended the decision to consent the project.
  • Moray Offshore Renewable Power Limited v Bluefloat Energy UK Holdings Limited [2023] CSOH 29. Acting as junior counsel for the successful defender in a claim for alleged unlawful means and unlawful means conspiracy. The sum sued for was £400 million.
  • Riley v Student Housing Co (Ops) Ltd 2023 S.L.T. (Sh Ct) 15. Acting for the successful defender in the first case in the United Kingdom to consider the litigation exemption to the data protection principles in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
  • D&M Winchester Limited v Coleburn Distillery Limited [2023] CSOH 66. Counsel for the appellant in an appeal to the Court of Session from the UK Intellectual Property Once. This is the second ever appeal to the Court of Session from the UKIPO.
  • Reliance AB Limited v Quantum Claims Compensation Specialists Limited [2024] SAC Civ 9. Acting for defender in an appeal to the Sheriff Appeal Court relating to the interpretation of a lease.
  • Sapphire 16 SARL v Marks and Spencer PLC [2021] CSOH 13. Junior counsel acting for the defender, Marks and Spencer PLC, in an action raised by their landlord alleging breach of a “keep open” clause in the lease. The action concerns the interpretation of the lease provisions, enforceability of the clause and whether the trading position complies with the terms of the lease.
Directories
  •        Ranked as an “IP Star” by Managing IP since 2020
  •        World Trademark Review 1000 (2021 & 2020) – recommended for enforcement and litigation

Quotes

    • “[He] has a flair for resolving spats both in and out of court for players in the food and drink, technology, oil and gas and luxury industries.”
    • “He has an excellent technical knowledge of trade mark law, which he is able to explain well to non-lawyers. Deadline-oriented and quick to grasp issues, he is also very personable.”
Select publications
  • Communication to the public online: protecting copyright or breaking the Internet? 2020 Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice Vol. 15, No.5, 390-398
  • Arbitration section in Enforcement of judgments and arbitral awards in Scotland Practical Law, Thomson Reuters
  • Protecting your brand: The Scottish Option In-House Lawyer, Spring 2019
  • Data breaches and the damages test JLSS Dec 2018
  • Changing Sides JLSS June 2017