Keynote Speakers
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24 August 2016 Centre Conference Norton Park Improving Support for the Accused Person with A Learning Disability Keynote Speakers Dan Gunn OBE, Independent Chair, SOLD Advisory Group Retired in 2014 from Scottish Prison Service as acting Director of Operations having been ‘inside’ for 38 years, I had been Governor of Glenochil, Edinburgh, Polmont YOI, Greenock and the Barlinnie Special Unit. My additional policy interests were Equality, Health, Youth crime and taking a holistic approach to criminal justice. I am now a Trustee in various voluntary sector justice bodies including Sacro (Vice- Chair), Families Outside, Venture Trust, Positive Prison? Positive Futures and Ypeople. Through my involvement with the Church of Scotland, I am a member of the National Prison Visitor Centre Steering Group and I chair the Stirling Interfaith Community Justice Group and the Jt.Faiths Board on Community Justice. I received an OBE in 2008. Sheriff Andrew Cubie, Deputy Director, Judicial Institute Sheriff Andrew Cubie was a solicitor in private practice in Glasgow from 1987, specialising in civil court work, with emphasis on family law. He was appointed as a Temporary sheriff from 1997-1999. He was admitted as a Solicitor Advocate with rights of audience in the Court of Session in 2001. During his time in private practice he taught civil procedure at Strathclyde University and the Glasgow Graduate School of Law. He devised and taught an in-house course for the Scottish Legal Aid Board. He was appointed as a permanent Sheriff from 2003. Initially an all- Scotland Floating Sheriff, he was a resident Sheriff at Stirling from December 2004 to June 2010 when he moved to be one of the resident Sheriffs at Glasgow Sheriff Court. Since September 2014 he has been seconded to the Judicial Institute for Scotland as the Deputy Director. He has contributed regularly to judicial training and has provided articles to a number of publications including Scots Law Times, Scottish Criminal Law and Benchmark, the newsletter of the Judiciary of England and Wales. He contributed to MacPhail on Sheriff Court Practice in 2006. In February 2016 his textbook on “Scots Criminal Law” was re-issued. Steve Robertson Steve Robertson has been involved with People First (Scotland) for many years. He has been on the Board of Directors since 1995 and was the Chair of the Board between 2010 and 2015. He has represented People First on the With Scotland User and Carer’s working group on adult protection; on the Same as You Implementation group and has been instrumental in forging links with other self-advocacy organisations in Europe through visits to Sweden and Ireland. Steve has previously been employed as a Commission visitor with the Mental Welfare Commission. He currently works for Thera Scotland as their Quality Director. The Right Hon Lady Dorrian (Leeona J Dorrian) Lady Dorrian was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Courts in 2005, having served as a Temporary Judge since 2002. She was appointed to the Inner House in November 2012 and was appointed The Lord Justice Clerk in April 2016. Lady Dorrian is a graduate of the University of Aberdeen (LLB). She was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1981 and was Standing Junior Counsel to the Health and Safety Executive and Commission between 1987 and 1994. Lady Dorrian served as Advocate Depute between 1988 and 1991, and as Standing Junior to the Department of Energy between 1991 and 1994. Lady Dorrian was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1994. Between 1997 and 2001 she was a member of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. Iain Burke, Convenor, Equality & Diversity Committee, Law Society of Scotland Iain Burke was born in Glasgow (in 1969 if you need that!) Law degree at Strathclyde. Traineeship in Glasgow and Drumchapel. He went to the Borders on finishing my traineeship to set up a court department for a local firm. Opened Bannerman Burke in Galashiels in September 1999 in partnership with Sandy and Rory Bannerman who at that time were operating the long established Hawick firm of Thomas Purdom and sons. He is Vice Dean of local faculty and of course Law Society Council member and committee convener. Iain is married, with two (hormonal and expensive) teenage children, one just finished first year at university, the other in sixth year at school. Hobbies include mountain biking, triathlons and Peroni. Alison Di Rollo, Solicitor General, COPFS Alison Di Rollo was appointed Solicitor General for Scotland on 2 June 2016 by Her Majesty the Queen on the recommendation of the First Minister with the agreement of the Scottish Parliament. As one of the two Law Officers of Scotland, the Solicitor General is deputy to the Lord Advocate, they are Ministers of the Scottish Government and the chief legal officers of the Scottish Government for both civil and criminal matters. They are the ministerial heads of the prosecution service in Scotland, known as the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service which is responsible for the prosecution of crime, the investigation of sudden or suspicious deaths and complaints of criminal conduct by police officers on duty. Alison graduated with LLB and Dip LP from Glasgow University in 1983 and joined COPFS in 1985 following a legal traineeship in private practice, going on to perform front line prosecution duties in Dumfries, Edinburgh and Dunfermline, as well as a broad range of policy work in the COPFS Policy Group, before being appointed Deputy Head of the High Court Unit in Crown Office, and later Head of Operational Policy. In May 2008 Alison was seconded from COPFS to take up an appointment as a Trial Advocate Depute, and since then has been prosecuting in the High Court. As well as conducting murder, rape, child abuse, robbery, drugs and firearms trials, in 2009 she assisted the then Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini QC in the prosecution of Marek Harcar for the rape and murder of Moira Jones. In February 2010 Alison joined the COPFS National Sexual Crimes Unit, specialising in the preparation and prosecution of serious sexual offences – including internet related offences – and was closely involved in the first cases to be taken under the new consolidated legislation of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009. Between January 2013 and January 2015 Alison was the Head of the National Sexual Crimes Unit. From January 2015 until taking appointment as Solicitor General Alison held the position as a Senior Advocate Depute. Joyce Plotnikoff DBE, Co-author, “Intermediaries in the Criminal Justice System” Joyce is a researcher and, with Dr Richard Woolfson, co-director of Lexicon Limited (www.lexiconlimited.co.uk). They are the authors of ‘Intermediaries in the Criminal Justice System’ (Policy Press 2015). Other work includes evaluation of the intermediary pilot scheme (The ‘Go-Between’ Ministry of Justice, 2007); Registered Intermediaries in Action (Ministry of Justice and NSPCC, 2011); and Intermediaries in the Criminal Justice System: Improving communication for vulnerable witnesses and defendants (Policy Press, 2015). In Scotland, they were the authors of the Lord Advocate’s Working Group Report on Child Witness Support (1998). Joyce chaired the pilot of visual recording of child witness interviews at the request of Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini (2004-2006). In England, they contributed to the Judicial College’s Equal Treatment Bench Book (2013); Bench Checklist: Young Witness Cases (2012); and the Lord Chief Justice’s Criminal Practice Directions (2013). Joyce is a member of a panel of experts advising the Judicial College. In 2012, Joyce and Richard, with Professor Penny Cooper, co-founded a website hosted by the Advocacy Training Council: www.theadvocatesgateway.org, providing free guidance on case management and the questioning of vulnerable witnesses and defendants. Joyce worked as an attorney in the US federal court system for 10 years and in 1981 received a Judicial Fellowship at the Supreme Court of the United States and the Justice Tom C. Clark award. In 2013, she received the administration of justice award from the US Supreme Court Fellows Alumni Association. The work of SOLD is funded by the Scottish Government Community Justice Division. .