Lord Pentland to head line-up at 21st Century Bar Conference 2025

SEVERAL exciting speakers have been confirmed for the Faculty of Advocate’s ever-popular annual 21^st Century Bar Conference, to be held in Edinburgh in early December.

The Rt Hon Lord Pentland, Lord President and Lord Justice General, will deliver the keynote address at the free event. Other speakers include David Hamilton, the Scottish Information Commissioner, and John Gannon, Managing Legal Counsel, Litigation and Investigations at NatWest. There will be several speakers from Faculty, including Paul Reid KC, Susan Ower KC, Amelia Mah and Chris Stephen, who will speak about subjects such as public law, contract law, international law and AI, and intellectual property. 

 

The conference will again be chaired by Usman Tariq KC and Graeme McWilliams.

This year will mark the 25^th anniversary of the conference. The conference was the brainchild of Colin Anderson who, together with the then Vice-Dean of Faculty, Colin Campbell KC (now Lord Malcolm) and John Sturrock KC, the Faculty’s first Director of Training, developed the format of the conference which brings together in-house lawyers and members of Faculty.

The first 21^st Century Bar Conference was held on 23 November 2001 with speakers including Patrick Hodge KC (now Lord Hodge), Stephen Woolman KC (now Lord Woolman) and leading lights of the junior bar, including James Wolffe and Brian Napier (both now KCs). David Sellar KC holds the record for the most appearances, having spoken at 14 editions of the conference, followed closely by Michael Howlin KC, who has spoken at 13 editions of the conference.  

The conference will take place at the Mackenzie Building on Friday 5 December from 9am to 4.30pm. It typically fills up quickly, so early registration for this free event is recommended. Click here to secure a seat. More information regarding the day’s agenda will be circulated in due course.