Outreach activities
Members of Faculty, as well as Faculty itself, initiate and support many outreach activities through fund raising and donating their time and expertise. Here are a few of the initiatives that benefit from that support.
Women at the Scottish Bar Careers Clinic
To encourage and support women considering a career as an advocate Faculty launched an online Women at the Scottish Bar Careers Clinic in 2023.
This annual event is open to female trainees or qualified solicitors in Scotland and abroad. It gives participants the chance to have a confidential conversation with a woman already at the Bar. These conversations can cover, among other things, how to plan their journey to the Bar, current opportunities and work levels at Faculty and what life as an advocate is really like. Each 30-minute discussion is be conducted virtually after hours.
Joining information for the Women at the Scottish Bar Careers Clinic is published widely prior to each annual event taking place.
To find out more about this annual careers clinic contact Emma Boffey at emma.boffey@axiomadvocates.com
MiniTrials
MiniTrials is an initiative to help schools find out more about the Scottish legal system.
MiniTrials started in 2002 as an initiative by Lord Kinclaven, then Sandy Wylie, QC, and has been taken forward with the support and encouragement of the Faculty of Advocates and other legal sector stakeholders.
The original MiniTrials volunteers were Members of Faculty who visited local schools and helped pupils to run MiniTrials in class. Trinity Academy in Edinburgh was the first school to test the materials in the classroom and to use them as part of a six-week course in social education. Since then Members have continued to visit schools in support of MiniTrials.
Members of Faculty have helped to organise and run similar MiniTrials events in various Sheriff Courts across the country – in Kilmarnock, Edinburgh Paisley, Ayr, Dundee and Glasgow– with new events planned for other locations. Faculty encourages others to join in so that MiniTrials can be run as a joint venture involving all those who have an interested in education and the Scottish legal system.
Michael Upton is Faculty’s MiniTrials Co-ordinator. If any members of Faculty would like more information on how to offer support, he can be reached at Michael.upton@advocates.org.uk
The Tumbling Lassie Committee
The Tumbling Lassie Committee raises awareness of and funds for charities fighting against modern slavery and people trafficking, and to help survivors in Scotland and beyond.
Founded by Members of the Faculty of Advocates in 2015, the Committee is named in honour of a case decided by the Court of Session in Edinburgh in 1687: Reid v Scot of Harden and his Lady.
The case concerned a young girl gymnast, known to history only by her nickname, “the tumbling lassie”. She performed as an act in public entertainments put on by one Reid, a “mountebank” or travelling showman. She was being worn out by having to dance in Reid’s shows and ran away, taking refuge with the Scots of Harden, a family from the Scottish Borders. Reid sued the Scots and produced a written contract, showing that he had “bought” the tumbling lassie from her mother. He argued that the tumbling lassie belonged to him as his property.
The Court of Session in Edinburgh heard the case in January 1687. The Court dismissed Reid’s claim, impliedly declaring the tumbling lassie free. The only surviving report of the case contains the trenchant observation:
“But we have no slaves in Scotland, and mothers cannot sell their bairns…”
The Tumbling Lassie Committee raised over £70,000 this year as it celebrated its tenth anniversary during 2025, adding to an already impressive total of monies raised in pursuit of its aims. The funds were, as usual, split equally between the organisation’s nominated charities, International Justice Mission and SOHTIS (Survivors of Human Trafficking in Scotland).
For more information on the Tumbling Lassie Committee go to www.tumblinglassie.com
Mini-devilling Scheme
The Mini-devilling scheme is a scheme open to students enrolled on the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice at an accredited provider in Scotland. The scheme was established in 2018 with the support of Strathclyde University. Since 2022 the scheme has enjoyed the support of all six Diploma providers.
The scheme is intended to give diploma students an opportunity to gain experience of the work of an Advocate and an insight into the Faculty of Advocates, as well as a more general introduction to advocacy and the realities of legal work.
The scheme involves students, known as ‘mini-devils’, shadowing a Member of Faculty for one day a week over the course of the university semester between New Year and Easter. Devilling is the term used for those who are training to become Members of the Faculty of Advocates, hence the term mini-devil for those students who take part in this scheme.
Each Diploma provider selects an agreed number of students to take part in the scheme. The Faculty of Advocates then allocates participants to an Advocate practising in an area in which they have expressed an interest.
In addition to shadowing a specific Member of Faculty, there are also talks and training events provided to the mini-devils with Faculty Office Bearers, Senators of the College of Justice, and other senior figures from the Scottish legal world giving of their time to support the scheme in a variety of ways.
Faculty Members Dominic Scullion and Elisabeth Roxburgh can be contacted for more information at dominic.scullion@compasschambers.com and elisabeth.roxburgh@axiomadvocates.com
Scottish Legal Walks
Organised by the Access to Justice Foundation Scotland, the Scottish Legal Walks raise funds to support the provision of free legal advice services.
The Access to Justice Foundation Scotland works in partnership across various initiatives with the legal profession, funders, and free legal advice providers at local and national levels across Scotland to ensure free legal advice services are available to the people, places, and communities most in need. Funds raised assist people across the country who are facing housing problems, employment disputes, benefit issues, and family crises to access and enforce their legal rights and feel empowered to address inequalities and challenge unfair treatment.
Faculty is a national sponsor of the Scottish Legal Walks alongside the Law Society. The walks are a staple of Scotland’s legal calendar and take place during September and October each year in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Falkirk, Paisley, and Aberdeen. They walks provide a visible and practical way for the legal profession to support those who rely on free legal services.
Find out more about the Scottish Legal Walks at https://atjf.org.uk/support-us/fundraise-for-us/increasing-access-to-justice-in-scotland
Young Speakers Scotland
Young Speakers Scotland (YYS) is an educational charity that uses debating and public speaking to help young people realise their potential. Through workshops, competitions and events it aims to equip young people with confidence, critical thinking ability and general knowledge to impact their lives. It works with pupils from S1 through to S6.
Speak Up Scotland is its flagship programme, delivering free workshops to state schools from the Highlands to the Borders. These workshops build confidence by introducing skills of critical thinking and public speaking and, in so doing, help young people feel empowered to speak up in their lives. YSS welcomes schools with little to no experience of debating and, through its workshops, helps them to set up a debate club for the very first time.
Faculty has hosted the finals of its Schools Mace Debating Competition in Parliament House for some years now, covering the cost of lunch and refreshments for all the school pupils and the teachers involved in this event, as well as a photographer to capture the highlights of the event.
Members of Faculty also facilitate debates between the different participating schools in courtrooms, and deliver presentations on the life of an Advocate – gave debaters with an interest in law an opportunity to see what a career at the Bar looks like firsthand.
Find out more about YYS at www.youngspeakersscotland.org.uk
The Bar Mock Trial Competition
The Bar Mock Trial Competition helps young people aged 15 to 18 understand how the law touches every aspect of their lives, gaining an insight into how the legal justice system works.
Pupils at state schools are given access to resources, including specially written criminal cases, to help teams prepare legal arguments. Teams take part in regional heats where they go head-to-head with other schools to prosecute and defend the cases. The winning teams then compete in a national competition.
Students who take part are encouraged to think critically, build arguments and oracy skills, and boost their confidence. Through enabling students to interact with legal professionals, the competition helps develop employability skills.
The experience will help students develop a sound knowledge and understanding of the role of law and the justice system in our society.
Faculty has sponsored this competition for many years and Faculty members have offered their time and expertise in helping teams prepare, and in judging and facilitating the various heats and the finals.
University mooting societies
Faculty continues to offer sponsorship support to mooting societies at universities, including those at the University of Edinburgh and Strathclyde University.
The annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot
The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is a competition for law students to foster the study and practice of international commercial sales law and arbitration. Students from all countries are eligible, with students from over 80 countries having previously participated.
The Moot involves a dispute arising out of a contract of sale between two countries that are party to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The contract provides that any dispute that might arise is to be settled by arbitration in Danubia, a country that has enacted the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration and is a party to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. The arbitral rules to be applied rotate yearly among the arbitration rules of co-sponsoring institutions of the Moot.
Members of Faculty and a number of devils have played a key role in helping law students from the University of Edinburgh prepare to compete in the Moot for several years now.
Find out more about the Moot at www.vismoot.org
Other university organisations
Faculty also offers financial support to other university groupings, such as the Aberdeen Bar Society, established with the primary aim of demystifying the route to the English and Scottish Bar for both law and non-law students
Faculty Christmas Collection
For over a decade now the Faculty Christmas Collection has been a lifeline for vulnerable families across Fife. The annual fundraiser supports families facing isolation, bereavement, disability, mental health challenges, and poverty – helping to ensure that Christmas is a time of joy rather than despair.
Faculty Member Maria Maguire KC launched the collection in 2015 and has driven donations steadfastly since then. Each year Faculty Members, devils, Faculty staff, friends and families and colleagues in the legal sector make contributions.
With child poverty rates in Fife still alarmingly high – over 11,000 children live in relative poverty – the Faculty Christmas Collection offers vital support. Every gift and donation helps ease the pressure on parents and brings joy to children who might otherwise go without.
What began as a simple appeal for toys has grown into a remarkable effort that by 2025 had raised over £120,000 and delivered thousands of gifts to 800 families and more than 1,250 children. Thanks to the generosity of donors, today the collection reaches all six Home-Start branches in Fife.
The impact is profound. Donations also fund essentials such as food vouchers, heating, baby supplies, and bedding. They support year-round activities such as play sessions, outings and swimming lessons, which many families could not otherwise afford. This mitigates the acute effects of poverty and deprivation and can set children on the path to a better future.
Find out more about the Faculty Christmas Collection here If you would like any further information on how to get involved you may contact Maria Maguire KC at maria.maguire@advocates.org.uk