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Areas of expertise

Professional information

  • 2025-Present: Member of Council, The Stair Society
  • 2024: Admitted to the Faculty of Advocates
  • 2023-Present: Tutor in Public Law and Commercial Litigation, University of Edinburgh
  • 2023-2024: Devil and Lord Reid Scholar. Devilmasters: David Welsh, Usman Tariq KC (IP & Media Law) and Wendy Culross (Criminal)
  • 2021-2023: MacRoberts LLP
  • 2020-Present: PhD Student in Public Law, University of Glasgow, Clark Foundation Scholar
  • 2015-2019: University of Strathclyde, LLB (Hons); 2019-2020
Professional experience

Jamie called to the bar as the Lord Reid Scholar, an annual award given to the most outstanding candidate. He has an established public law practice. He is an experienced public lawyer, having dealt with judicial review challenges both for and against public bodies. He is a specialist in constitutional law and human rights, which is the subject of his PhD thesis. He has also acted for clients in various administrative law challenges, such as pharmaceutical list challenges and disputes about children’s rights. He has also been instructed to advise a number of major public authorities in respect of complex equality law disputes. He is well-equipped to assist clients in all public law disputes, including procurement and environmental disputes.

Jamie is also instructed as counsel in tax matters, where he accepts instructions in both contentious and non-contentious matters. He has provided advice in respect of high-value transactions and complex issues with statutory interpretation. Jamie accepts instructions in respect of all areas of tax law. He is able to accept instructions in respect of any tax appeals across the UK, and he can be instructed directly by accountants and other tax professionals.

Jamie also maintains a busy commercial practice. Since calling to the Bar, Jamie has assisted with a number of multi-million pound commercial disputes involving complex questions about intellectual property, procurement, trusts, tax liability, and unfair prejudice. Jamie has specific experience dealing with litigation in the whisky sector and the wholesale sector.

Jamie is also an academic. He is a PhD Candidate at the University of Glasgow, where he is writing a thesis on Constitutional Law and the Philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas. He teaches on the Commercial Litigation and Public Law courses at the University of Edinburgh.

Notable cases

Public Law

X v Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration 2026 S.L.T. 239 (led by Dan Byrne KC): appeared successfully for a child in the judicial review of a decision of a Children’s Hearing which failed to have regard his rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

AN -v- Renfrewshire Council 2025 S.L.T. 1322: appeared successfully for the defender, challenging the competency of a bare declarator of fact where the pursuer sought a declarator as to her age for the purposes of section 25(3) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

LP North Sixteen t/a Dears Pharmacy -v- TBP Partnership LLP & Lothian Health Board 2025 S.L.T. 1182: appeared for the petitioner (with Ruth Crawford KC as senior) in the judicial review of a decision of the National Appeal Panel to uphold a decision of a Pharmaceutical Practice Committee.

Reclaiming Motion by A against the Principal Reporter and others 2025 S.C. 262 (led by Gerry Moynihan KC): appeared successfully for the Scottish Children’s Reporter’s Administration in judicial review of a decision of a Children’s Hearing relevant to the operation of section 6(1) of the Human Rights Act 1998.

Fatal Accident Inquiry into the death of Jack McKenzie [2025] FAI 24: instructed by the next of kin in a Fatal Accident Inquiry into a prisoner’s death at HMYOI Polmont.

Commercial Law

Simpson & Or -v- Scottish Water [2026] SC AIR 37: appeared for the successful pursuer in a debate about an action for damages on the basis of nuisance caused by the defender. The defender argued that the subject-matter of the action was subject to the supervisory jurisdiction of the Court of Session, but the court held that the remedies sought were competent.

Watermans Property Sales Ltd -v- Webster [2026] SC DUNF 36: appeared successfully for the defender successfully seeking dismissal of a case about a restrictive covenant on the basis that the pursuer’s averments were lacking in specification.

Trusts & Executries

O’Brien’s Executors -v- O’Brien (Glasgow Sheriff Court, 2025, unreported): appeared successfully for the defender in a case where the pursuers alleged forgery, undue influence, fraud and breach of trust.

Directories

Select publications
  • ‘The Nobile Officium and Public Law: An Undertapped Resource?’, 12 March 2024, UKCLA Blog.
  • ‘Public Health, Proportionality, and the ‘Freedom of Halie Kirk’: On Philip & Others v Scottish Ministers’, 2022 Public Law 4.
  • ‘The Case for Conscience: On the Common Good and Conscientious Refusals in Medicine’, Volume 19, Dec 2019, Philosophical News.
  • ‘Veil Piercing in the UK: An Evolution of Doctrinal Approaches’, 2019 2 De Lege Ferenda 1.

Notable Conference Addresses

  • “Equity and Judicial Review”, Roman Law in the 21st Century Conference 2023, National University of Public Service, Budapest, Hungary
  • “The Classical Legal Tradition and Political Constitutionalism”, ICON·S Annual World Public Law Conference 2021, Wroclaw, Poland