Diploma in Professional Legal Practice PgDip
Academic staff
Academic staff
Our staff strive to deliver excellence in professional legal education and ensure that our students are prepared for practice. Each of our Senior Tutors, who are drawn from a diverse range of backgrounds from across the Scottish legal profession, lead a team of experienced, enthusiastic and committed staff, offering expert professional guidance.
Kerry Trewern, Director of Diploma in Professional Legal Practice
Kerry has been the Director of the Diploma since 2016. Following her traineeship at Balfour + Manson LLP, Kerry specialised in civil litigation, moving to Morton Fraser LLP in 2009 where she was also heavily involved in professional support and client training. In 2014, Kerry was appointed Deputy Director of the Diploma at the University of Edinburgh, during which time she also taught various subjects on the LLB. As well as running and teaching on the Diploma at Glasgow, Kerry also teaches a number of Trainee CPD courses.
David Boag, Deputy Director of Diploma in Professional Legal Practice
David joined the University of Glasgow as Deputy Director of the Diploma in December 2022.
David trained and qualified with Glasgow City Council, working within their busy court team for several years before moving into private practice at Harper MacLeod LLP, one of Scotland’s leading full-service law firms. David has experience in a broad range of civil litigation matters though largely specialised in debt and asset recovery work at Harper Macleod, where he had a diverse range of private, commercial and public sector clients.
David has taught on the Diploma since 2015 in both Civil Litigation and Advanced Civil Litigation.
Donna Lavery, Learning & Teaching Coordinator
Donna joined the Diploma team in October 2018 from the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences. She is an integral team member, who manages all the administrative work related to the running of the Diploma. Donna also graduated from the University in History in 2017.
Rosa Barbour, Learning & Teaching Administrator
Rosa joined the team in 2022 having previously worked within the Undergraduate Team of the School of Law. She is a key team member, who deals with all the administrative work related to the running of the Diploma. Rosa is graduate of both Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities in English Literature.
Advanced civil litigation: Morag Fraser, Joint Senior Tutor
Morag has tutored on the Diploma since 2012 and now teaches on the civil litigation, advanced civil litigation and family law courses. Morag took over as Joint Senior Tutor of the advanced civil litigation course in January 2020. Morag has run her own firm, Fraser Shepherd, since 2004. She is accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a Family Law Mediator and as a Specialist in Family Law. Morag is a Director of Relationships Scotland and is a part time Peer Reviewer with the Law Society of Scotland Quality Assurance Scheme.
Morag is also Senior Tutor for Civil Litigation.
Advanced civil litigation: Denise Loney, Joint Senior Tutor
Denise has tutored on the Diploma since its inception in 2010, teaching on both the civil litigation and advanced civil litigation courses. Denise took over as Joint Senior Tutor of the advanced civil litigation course in January 2020. Denise runs her own firm, Alston Law Limited, and has a lengthy background in civil litigation. Denise is also a Board Member of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and also sits on Law Society Committees.
Advanced criminal litigation: Peter Galletly, Senior Tutor
Peter has worked in the criminal courts in Glasgow and west central Scotland for many years, mostly as a criminal defence lawyer but also as a Procurator Fiscal. He therefore has extensive experience in both prosecuting and defending at trial. Peter was the Managing Partner of his own firm, Galletly and Company, based in Glasgow for over 20 years, and presently works as a freelance criminal lawyer. He has been tutoring in the Diploma at Glasgow since its inception in 2010 and tutors in commercial awareness and criminal litigation. Peter is also the Senior Tutor of the advanced criminal litigation course.
Commercial awareness:
Rhona McNair, Joint Senior Tutor
Rhona is Associate Corporate Counsel at Thermo Fisher Scientific, a US-based life sciences company, where she leads a team of around 20 paralegals and junior lawyers in using contract automation technology. Rhona was previously the Deputy Director of the Diploma at the University of Glasgow from 2017 to 2022. Dual-qualified in English law, she also spent a number of years in private practice (including at Dundas & Wilson, now CMS), in-house (EDF Energy and Scottish Power Renewables) and running her own consultancy.
Andrew Todd, Joint Senior Tutor
Andrew is general counsel and company secretary for Springfield Properties plc. Springfield is Scotland’s only listed housebuilder. It owns Springfield Partnerships, Dawn Homes, Tulloch Homes, Walker Group and McTaggart & Mickel. Andrew worked at McGrigors (now Pinsents Masons) and Dundas & Wilson (now CMS). He is the co-author of Commercial Awareness for Lawyers in Scotland.
Commercial contracts: Alastair Dunn, Senior Tutor
Alastair is a Partner at BTO, specialising in corporate and commercial law. He acts for a range of well-established clients, including national and international organisations, owner-managed companies, entrepreneurs, funders, shareholder groups and investors. Alastair’s practice covers sales and acquisitions, investment and banking work, company disputes and ongoing advice and assistance to a number of large-scale concerns.
Commercial conveyancing: Ken Gerber, Senior Tutor
Ken is a Partner at Mitchells Roberton LLP. He has been a Partner in four different law firms over the past 33 years, and specialises in commercial property. Ken’s main areas of interest are commercial leases, development work, purchase and sale, loan work and opinion work for other law firms and local authorities. In addition to writing his textbook on commercial leases, he leads the team involved in updating the Landlord and Tenant Section of The Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia, and has written various styles for Greens Practice Styles on property law.
Conveyancing: Marie Canning, Senior Tutor
Marie has recently taken up a post as an in-house solicitor at River Clyde Homes, one of the largest Housing Associations in Scotland. Marie has over 20 years’ experience in private practice and the public sector, having worked in-house for a large local authority and as a Legal Advisor within Strathclyde Partnership for Transport. Marie has practical knowledge in both residential and commercial conveyancing and has been tutoring on a variety of Diploma courses since 2012.
Corporate: Alison Keith, Senior Tutor
Alison is a director of Kerslands Solicitors Ltd and was previously a senior associate at MacRoberts in the corporate department. Her practice covers a mixture of corporate and commercial work (primarily acting for SMEs) and general chambers. Alison taught at Strathclyde University from 1994 until 2001, lecturing in tax law on the LLB and has been a tutor on the Diploma for a number of years across the conveyancing, commercial awareness, corporate and commercial contracts courses. She currently acts as Deputy Senior Tutor on the commercial Awareness course and Senior Tutor on corporate.
Criminal litigation: Alasdair Youngson
Alasdair started work as a solicitor in local authorities in Glenrothes and Perth. He became a Procurator Fiscal Depute in 1984 and has worked as a Prosecutor since then, mostly in Hamilton, Glasgow and Crown Office. He is currently a trainer at the COPFS' Scottish Prosecution College and is particularly involved in the training of the COPFS trainees. He has been a tutor in Criminal Litigation for 6 years.
Employment Law: Lindsey Cartwright, Senior Tutor
Lindsey is a Partner in the Employment Team at Morton Fraser LLP, having previously been a Partner in Dentons LLP and Mackay Simon, and has over 20 years’ experience practicing exclusively in employment law. Lindsey represents both employer and employee clients in the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal, acting for private and public sector organisations of all sizes, including one of the UK's largest employers. Lindsey is accredited as a specialist in employment law by the Law Society of Scotland. She is currently Secretary of the Employment Law Group in Scotland, and a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and the Association of Regulatory & Disciplinary Lawyers.
Family law: Bernadette Baxter, Joint Senior Tutor
Bernadette is a Partner with Mellicks Solicitors. She specialises in civil litigation with particular emphasis on family law. Since qualifying as a solicitor in 1988, Bernadette has represented children and parties both in negotiations and in the conduct of cases including Child Welfare Hearings, Children’s Referral Proofs and Ordinary Proofs. In 1999, she helped found the Family Team at Glasgow Sheriff Court, where she was a solicitor member for the next ten years. Bernadette is an Executive Committee Member of the Glasgow Bar Association and is a Curator ad Litem in the Sheriffdom of Glasgow and Strathkelvin.
Family law: Nicos Scholarios, Joint Senior Tutor
Nicos qualified as a Solicitor in 1983 and is Senior Partner of MSM Solicitors. He is a general practitioner with extensive experience in family law and has been an accredited as a Family Law Mediator by the Law Society of Scotland since 1995. Nicos has also been registered as a Notary Public since February 1984. He is currently Secretary of CALM, an association of Lawyer Mediators in Scotland.
Human rights: Craig French, Senior Tutor
Craig is a Divisional Solicitor/Deputy Director in the Scottish Government's Legal Directorate. He has considerable experience in both the private and public sector, principally as a litigator. Craig currently heads up the Criminal Justice, Police & Fire Division in the Scottish Government Legal Directorate, advising Scottish Government Ministers and policy officials on all aspects of criminal justice and community safety. Prior to taking up his current role, Craig led the Employment Law & Litigation team in the Scottish Government.
Introduction to Legal Innovation and Technology: Alasdair Thomson, Senior Tutor
Alasdair is a former law firm partner and is now a non-practicing Scottish solicitor who has worked in tech and online projects since 2005. He has been a tutor of Legal Innovation and Technology on the Diploma since 2019. He is a former member of the Law Society of Scotland's Technology Law and Practice Committee. In 2020, he set up the online platform Hey Legal, which provides learning and insight for lawyers, and is a member of the Lawscot Tech community.
Public law: Graham Crombie, Senior Tutor
Graham undertook his traineeship with the Government Legal Service for Scotland, where he has worked since qualifying in 2008. Graham has extensive public law experience in a range of posts with the Scottish Government Legal Directorate (general litigation), the Office of the Solicitor to the Scottish Parliament (legislative scrutiny), the Lord President's Private Office (drafting rules of court and general advisory work), the Office of the Advocate General (tax litigation) and the Scottish Law Commission (review of contract law). Graham has recently taken up a new post as Head of Policy in the Scottish Government's Freedom of Information Unit.
Private client: Siobhan McGuigan, Senior Tutor
Siobhan completed a BA Honours Degree in Business Law and Politics in 2003 from Strathclyde University. She then joined a law firm in Glasgow and worked in their Private Client department, specialising in executries, wills, trusts and powers of attorney, whilst completing her law degree part-time. Siobhan joined Blackadders when they opened their Glasgow office in 2016, having previously worked with them in Dundee. She also has experience with guardianships and conveyancing. Siobhan is a full member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and is qualified in wills and probate administration (English Estates).