Captain James T. Kirk of The USS Enterprise regularly went boldly where no man has gone before. but Now it is the turn of the Mackinnon Stable of advocates to go boldly where no stable has gone before as it relocates lock, stock and barrel from Edinburgh to Glasgow. Steven Raeburn caught up with Banny Mackinnon and Thomas Ross to ask why they have suddenly decided to break through the final frontier.

After centuries of stolid venerability, the advocacy profession suddenly appears to be in a state of flux. But business nevertheless must carry on as usual. The courts are still operating a full programme of work that needs doing. There is a curious dichotomy between the profession of advocates as a whole - together with the bodies that represent and service them - and the men and women themselves. Essentially, a disparate group of 470 freelancers, competing for the same finite body of work. Some group themselves into specialist collective stables, others tout for business on the basis of an established reputation, others have thrown themselves into the competitive arena with greater zeal, embracing the market in a proactive, competitive sense. It is impossible to generalise about this most curious branch of the legal tree, but there are some certainties.
In the four hundred and seventy five verifiable years that there has been a Faculty of Advocates, not one has established themselves outside of the walls of the old Parliament House in Edinburgh. Thomas Ross and Banny Mackinnon, of the Mackinnon Stable - whose number includes Raj Jandoo, Mhairi Richards QC and Donald Findlay QC - are the first to have taken the step of relocatin, setting up their offices in Glasgow, a move so simple as to be unremarkable in most circumstances. Yet they are pioneers. In all likelihood, one day their portraits will hang in the Signet Library, but for now, they are sitting on a sofa in a central Glasgow hotel, as far from home as Shackleton, as pioneering as Hillary. As bold as Kirk. So why move out to the wild west?
“We think there is a combination of circumstances,” says Ross. “Initially the numbers were so small, it wouldn’t have justified any sort of splintering across the country. The Faculty have been quite forward thinking in terms of communication, email and electronic diaries. There is no real disadvantage to being in Glasgow, where there might have been ten years ago. There are the advantages in terms of the volume of business that is going through the courts and tribunals, and being processed by firms of solicitors in Glasgow.”
Banny McKinnon, whose stable of advocates bears his name, is equally forthright about the reasons behind the move. “The Faculty have been talking about coming through here for the last fifteen years anyway. We just saw an opportunity to grab the bull by the horns,” he says.
“We can provide a better service here. We can deliver things to the Sheriff Court; we have solicitors all around us. Most of the members of our stable are based round about Glasgow. Being in situ helps us to have a higher profile in Glasgow.”
Tommy Ross also points out that, despite the Edinburgh-centric nature of the advocacy profession, the balance of legal work undertaken by advocates themselves is far more geographically balanced across the central belt, and of course beyond. The High Court’s practice of travelling as a caravan on circuit across the Courts of Scotland has been nothing more than theoretical for some years. It goes where the business is. Since divorce was devolved from the Court of Session in the 1970s, much of the business has come west.
“In addition to the volume, there have also been procedural changes,” says Ross. “Since April 2005, everyone going through the High Court is indicted first to a preliminary hearing, and we will hear about 500 new ones of those in Glasgow every year, in addition to the continued ones. The demands put on advocates in relation to preliminary hearings are greater than ever before. Written communication with the Crown and the Court has to be lodged in Glasgow. There are tactical benefits in being in Glasgow, quite apart from business reasons,” Ross argues.
“Ten years ago it would have been difficult. Correspondence would have had to have been physically sent to Glasgow. Nowadays it all emailed. There is no real disadvantage at all. The thing that makes a move like this possible is the number of solicitors, court agencies, tribunals and so on. There are around 400 firms of solicitors in Glasgow. There is the Sheriff Court, all the tribunals which are based here. The High Court is here permanently, the SCCRC, 3 universities offering law degrees; it is a huge legal community.”
The MacKinnon Stable’s move out from under the umbrella of the traditional home of the profession has mirrored other changes taking place, symptomatic of an acknowledgement that the legal world may be changing faster than the structures that support it. Breakaway advocates chambers such as Oracle, and the emergence of specialist intermediate service provider Instruct Counsel, suggest that individual practitioners are grasping the initiative of change from within, rather than taking the lead from the Faculty of Advocates, or Faculty Services Limited, the professional bodies that administer and support advocates. The contrast with the Law Society, which regulates the solicitors profession, taking the lead in initiating the evolution of the profession, is marked.
“To their credit, Faculty Services Limited have been very open minded about it,” says Ross. “In 1971, they were servicing about 100 advocates. In a comparatively short time it just got really huge and difficult to manage. By 2005 they were asking for ideas. With or without John Carruthers and John Campbell, change would have come. I think they are prepared to look at all possible business models.”
Mackinnon seems at home in Glasgow. He speaks positively of a buzz in the city, and the challenge ahead in establishing a professional beach head in Scotland’s largest city. The Mackinnon Stable may turn out to be the thin edge of the wedge, throwing open the door of the city to more practitioners willing to prospect for business in the west.
“Time will tell. I think you will see major changes in the next five or six years; maybe more people moving out of Faculty Services Limited,” says Mackinnon. “I think most people are happy under the umbrella of the Faculty, and using the service company as a back up. It is silly to think things will remain the same forever. I think Faculty Services provide a good service and are quite a forward looking service.”
“We have had a lot of encouragement from influential members of the Faculty. We have not had anything negative from anybody.”
It is not clear exactly what has been the catalyst, but something has lit a fire under the practitioners of advocacy. Their numbers continue to grow, and Faculty income is increasing, there is no paranoia about diminishing workload. The profession seems justifiably torn between legitimate complacency, based on having well garnered laurels to rest upon, and the unfounded fear of extinction through atrophy. The swish of the Court of Session is certainly comforting, but perhaps the atmosphere of 16th century achievement has incrementally stifled the ambitious, over the years. Ross certainly believes that the McKinnon Stable are not the only advocates to have cast envious eyes west, where the atmosphere is tangibly, ineffably different .
“Over the years, behind closed doors, many members have thought about doing it,” Ross says. “There is a bit of a safety net in Edinburgh; a strength in numbers. They are keeping an eye on it to see if it develops positively.”
MacKinnon agrees that, now they have acted, the evident availability of work and the simplicity of setting up in Glasgow may have shown the way to like minded practitioners
“There may be an element of them feeling left out. We are here, on site. We are at the front line of things in Glasgow. I think they will be monitoring what happens with us over the next 6 months very closely. They might think we are pioneers, is it worth anybody following us?”
Like the symbolic wigs and gowns, the profession is legitimately characterised by how it behaves, as much as by what it values. The fact that it has taken 475 before one of their number set themselves up forty one miles away, speaks volumes.
“If it is a historic move - and I suppose it must be if this is the first stable in Glasgow - I am pleased about that. I am a Glasgow boy I was a Glasgow solicitor. I have grown up here. To be part of that move I am quite proud of that,” says Ross.
So strange as to remain untenable. One suspects the MacKinnon Stable won’t be alone for long.