Faculty of Advocates - Wikipedia Faculty of Advocates From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Faculty of Advocates" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Faculty of Advocates Motto Suum cuique Formation 1532 Headquarters Parliament House Location Edinburgh Membership 730 Dean of Faculty Roddy Dunlop QC Parent organization College of Justice Website www.advocates.org.uk Part of a series on Scots law Administration Justice and Communities Directorate of the Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Justice Judicial Appointments Board Judicial Complaints Reviewer Parole Board for Scotland Legal Aid Board Courts & Tribunals Service College of Justice Office of the Public Guardian Scottish Sentencing Council Law Commission Criminal Cases Review Commission Prison Service Civil courts Court of Session Lord President Lord Justice Clerk Lord of Session Office of the Accountant of Court Acts of Sederunt Sheriff Court Sheriff Appeal Court Sheriff Principal Sheriff Personal Injury Court Sheriff Criminal courts High Court of Justiciary Lord Justice-General Lord Justice Clerk Lords Commissioner of Justiciary Acts of Adjournal Sheriff courts Sheriff Appeal Court Sheriff Principal Sheriffs Justice of the peace courts Justices of the peace Special courts Court of the Lord Lyon Lord Lyon King of Arms Children's Reporter Administration Children's Hearings Land Court Lands Tribunal Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal Criminal prosecution Lord Advocate Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service Advocate Depute Procurator fiscal Fiscal fine Precognition Legal profession Judiciary Faculty of Advocates Advocate Law Society Solicitor-Advocate Solicitor Association of Commercial Attorneys Scottish Legal Complaints Commission v t e The Faculty of Advocates is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary. The Faculty of Advocates is a constituent part of the College of Justice and is based in Edinburgh. Advocates are privileged to plead in any cause before any of the courts of Scotland, including the sheriff courts and district courts, where counsel are not excluded by statute.[1] Contents 1 History 2 Organisation and governance 2.1 Free Legal Services Unit 3 Current membership 4 Advocates Library 4.1 Range of materials 4.2 History 5 Deans of the Faculty of Advocates 6 See also 7 References and sources 8 External links History[edit] The Faculty has existed since 1532 when the College of Justice was set up by Act of the Parliament of Scotland, but its origins are believed to predate that event. For a long period the Faculty resisted reorganisation, until changes in admissions were introduced in 1960.[2] The first woman to be admitted to the faculty was Margaret Kidd in July 1923, who remained Scotland's only female advocate until 1948.[3] Kidd served as Keeper of the Advocates' Library 1956–1969. In 2004 the first female vice-dean of the faculty was elected.[4] Organisation and governance[edit] The Faculty is led by the Dean of Faculty, who is elected by the whole membership. The post is currently held by Roddy Dunlop QC,[5] who succeeded Gordon Jackson in July 2020. He is supported by the Vice-Dean, Treasurer, Clerk, Keeper of the Library (currently Mungo Bovey) and Chairman of Faculty Services Ltd, all of whom are also elected. There is no standing council as with the Bar association of England and Wales. The Faculty is self-regulating, and the Court of Session delegates to it the task of preparing Intrants for admission as advocates. This task involves a process of examination and practical instruction known as devilling, during which intrants benefit from intensive structured training in the special skills of advocacy. No-one can be presented to the court as suitable to be a practising advocate without satisfying these training requirements. The Faculty also provides for its members an ongoing programme of talks, seminars and conferences covering a wide range of topics. Free Legal Services Unit[edit] Many Advocates and trainee advocates carry out work for the Free Legal Services Unit (FLSU). This is part of the Faculty's long standing commitment to providing access to justice for everyone in society. The FLSU enables qualified persons to provide advice and representation to clients of accredited advice agencies (including CAS) across Scotland. (In order to devil a person has to first undergo a period of training in a solicitor's office.) Current membership[edit] The Faculty includes practising and non-practising members. The current practising Bar includes an increasing proportion of women. Women make up approximately one quarter practising membership. Total numbers now stand at just over 460, of whom approximately one fifth are Queen's Counsel. The taking of Silk, as assumption of the title of Queen's Counsel is commonly known, depends upon the prerogative of Her Majesty. This is exercised through the First Minister of Scotland upon the recommendation of the Lord Justice General. The Dean of Faculty is consulted in the course of this process. As a general rule, silk is awarded to experienced Counsel, who are considered to have achieved distinction in full-time practice. The process of awarding silk has been the subject of some criticism. Advocates Library[edit] Main article: Advocates Library For more than 300 years, the Faculty has maintained within Parliament House the Advocates Library, often regarded as the finest working law library in the United Kingdom. Range of materials[edit] A comprehensive range of materials has been built up over the last three hundred years, and a modern library management system utilising the latest technology, ensure that the Advocates Library is able to meet the increasingly complex needs of members of the Faculty of Advocates. In addition, the library's stock is made available to others via the National Library of Scotland. History[edit] The Library was formally inaugurated in 1689. From the start the collection was a general one. In 1709 the status of the collection was confirmed when Queen Anne's Copyright Act gave the Keeper of the Library the right to claim a copy of every book published in the British Isles. The collection was enhanced by purchase and donation, particularly of continental imprints and of manuscripts. The Advocates Library came to be recognised as the natural depository for literary materials of national importance. By the 1850s the Library had become in effect Scotland's national library. In 1925 the National Library of Scotland was established when the Faculty gifted to the nation its whole non-law collections comprising 750,000 books, pamphlets, manuscripts, maps and sheet music. The Advocates Library has retained the copyright privilege for law publications. In recent years the Advocates Library has expanded to take account of the increase in membership of the Faculty. Advances in technology have been embraced with the installation of a new library management system, incorporating an on-line catalogue, which further enhances the services the library offers. Deans of the Faculty of Advocates[edit] Main article: List of Deans of the Faculty of Advocates The Dean of Faculty is the leader of the Faculty of Advocates. The Dean elected by the whole membership. Since 2000, the following have served as Dean: 1997 to 2001: Nigel Emslie 2001 to 2004: Colin Campbell 2004 to 2007: Robert Logan "Roy" Martin[6] 2007 to 2014: Richard Keen 2014 to 2016: James Wolffe 2016 to 2020: Gordon Jackson 2020 to present Roddy Dunlop QC See also[edit] Inns of Court, a roughly equivalent body for England and Wales King's Inns, a roughly equivalent body for the Republic of Ireland References and sources[edit] References ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Advocates, Faculty of" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 242. ^ Watt, George (29 July 1970). "Reorganising the Faculty of Advocates". Glasgow Herald. p. 8. Retrieved 6 December 2016. ^ McRobert, Stewart (20 October 2014). "A Bar Removed". The Journal. The Law Society of Scotland. Retrieved 5 June 2018. ^ "Woman's historic legal selection". BBC News. 24 November 2004. Retrieved 9 June 2018. ^ "New Dean is Roddy Dunlop, QC". Faculty of Advocates. 14 July 2020. Retrieved 14 July 2020. ^ 'MARTIN, Robert Logan, (Roy)', Who's Who 2017, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2017; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2016; online edn, Nov 2016 accessed 18 Oct 2017 External links[edit] Official website v t e Legal education in Scotland Bodies Law Society of Scotland Faculty of Advocates Qualifications LL.B. degree LL.M. degree Diploma in Legal Practice Schools of law Aberdeen* Abertay Caledonian Dundee* Edinburgh* Glasgow* Napier Robert Gordon* Stirling Strathclyde* (*) = Schools offering the diploma in legal practice Authority control ISNI: 0000 0001 2097 2681 LCCN: n84233414 VIAF: 122982147 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n84233414 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Faculty_of_Advocates&oldid=998586624" Categories: Legal organisations based in Scotland Bar associations Organisations based in Edinburgh 1532 establishments in Scotland 16th century in Scotland College of Justice Organizations established in the 1530s Professional associations based in Scotland Members of the Faculty of Advocates Hidden categories: Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference Use dmy dates from December 2016 Use British English from December 2016 Articles needing additional references from August 2007 All articles needing additional references Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version Languages Add links This page was last edited on 6 January 2021, at 02:22 (UTC). 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