How Scotland’s law firms as weathering against the Brexit storm

It was the seminal legal moment of 2019. Some four million people watched online as Lady Hale, President of the UK Supreme Court, ruled that Boris Johnson's prorogation of parliament was unlawful – and it was a moment very much made in Scotland.

The case started with a group of petitioners led by Joanna Cherry QC, MP for Edinburgh South West, instructing Balfour+Manson, a legal firm rooted in the heart of Edinburgh’s New Town, to bring the action at the Court of Session.

Elaine Motion, executive chairman of Balfour+Manson, worked alongside Scottish advocate Aidan O’Neill QC, who argued in the Supreme Court that Boris Johnson’s prorogation meant: “The Mother of Parliaments has been shut down by the Father of Lies.”

Motion and O’Neill had already handled one landmark Brexit case, going all the way to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) with a group of petitioners led by another Scottish politician, Green MSP Andy Wightman. Again, the arguments ultimately prevailed, with the ECJ ruling that the UK had the right to overturn Article 50 unilaterally, without the agreement of the 27 other EU members.

As Motion wrote in The Scotsman recently, even she was shocked by the scale of interest in the Supreme Court judgment. “The delivery by Lady Hale was extraordinarily powerful,” Motion wrote. “This was hugely complex law but she explained it with incredible clarity and simplicity – to the court and the four million people watching online.

“I was intimately involved in the case – as the solicitor instructed by the 70-plus petitioners – yet even I never imagined the level of interest as Lady Hale delivered the judgment.”

Lorna Jack, chief executive of the Law Society of Scotland, says that the Brexit cases have had a very positive impact on the country’s global legal reputation: “Scotland and its courts and lawyers have played a huge role in these big constitutional conversations and I have had a lot of comments from colleagues around the world.

“It has been a great opportunity for people to see Scottish solicitors, advocates and courts in action, showing that it is a separate jurisdiction. It has been a very important showcase for Scotland and its reputation for legal excellence.”

Jack says that the legal sector in Scotland is in generally good shape, although she does admit to having concerns about 2020.

She says: “We have 12,000 members, with the largest number ever employed and the lowest-ever level of unemployment. Traineeships a