Year of Call: 2025

Gillian graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 2014 with an LL.B (Honours) Degree in Scots Law and with a Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Legal Practice with distinction in 2015. She trained at an all-service civil litigation firm and uniquely had her first court appearance within one week of her traineeship commencing and has remained a court practitioner ever since.

Prior to calling to the Bar in 2025 Gillian was a criminal defence solicitor.  She regularly appeared in court and is well versed in conducting criminal trials, both at solemn and summary level.  She is experienced in challenging the admissibility of evidence, conducting trials within a trial, and challenging the compatibility of proceedings with the European Convention on Human Rights.

She also took an interest in children’s referrals and established her own children’s hearings practice within an established criminal defence firm.

Since calling to the Bar in 2025, Gillian has appeared in an array of criminal cases in both the Sheriff and High Courts, as well as appearing before a bench of 3 judges in the High Court of Appeal.  She has also represented children accused of violent offending, undertaken children’s referral work, and defended permanence order proceedings.

She has a keen interest in human rights and criminal appeal work and is available for instruction in all aspects of criminal matters and children’s referral work.