Jodie Blackstock is Director of Criminal Justice and a barrister. Her position involves briefing on proposed domestic and EU legislation in the criminal justice sphere, conducting research into the effectiveness of criminal justice procedures, promoting law reform, and intervening in cases in the public interest. Recent joint projects include the European Commission funded, European arrest warrants: ensuring an effective defence and Inside Police Custody: An Empirical Study of Suspects’ Rights in Four Jurisdictions. Her case interventions have included appeals to the UK Supreme Court in relation to the right of access to a lawyer (2010), the rights of children of extraditees in preventing extradition (2012) and the right to post-conviction disclosure (2014). She regularly contributes to seminars and training programmes on criminal and human rights legal developments, in the UK, Europe and internationally.

Annabelle Ewing was appointed Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs in May 2016.

She graduated with EC Law Honours from Glasgow University in 1981. Following post-graduate studies in Bologna and Amsterdam, and 10 years as a Brussels-based EC lawyer, Annabelle returned to run a legal practice in Glasgow.

She was previously elected as the MP for Perth between 2001-2005. As an MSP, Annabelle was elected for Mid Scotland and Fife region in May 2011 and re-elected in May 2016. She was appointed as Minister for Youth and Women's Employment on November 2014.

David Lee launched the Law & Legal Affairs section of The Scotsman in 2003 and edited the pages until 2009. He later returned to edit the section on a freelance basis after leaving the paper to set up his own business.

As Director of David Lee Media & Events Ltd, he works as an event host, event organiser, writer, editor and media consultant, with a particular interest in law, the environment, education and general public policy. He was co-founder of The Scotsman Conferences in 2009 and has organised almost 50 events, including the successful series A Question of Independence. David has hosted numerous Scotsman events, as well as dozens of seminars, awards ceremonies and conferences for a range of public and private sector clients across Scotland and in London.

With over 20 years’ experience in legal aid work, Mark has been a member of the Law Society’s Legal Aid Committee since 2003, and is the convener of the Civil Legal Aid Team. Co-founder of Thorley Stephenson, Mark is in charge of the family law and reparation department of the firm which started with one assistant and now has grown into a team of five lawyers and two trainee solicitors.

Catriona Whyte has been employed by the Scottish Legal Aid Board since October 1987. She is SLAB’s Head of Legal Services – Civil & Children’s with responsibility for the team of solicitors and paralegals who consider the legal merits of civil and children’s applications including initial applications, sanctions, stage reports and special urgency applications. Since 2009 her work has included reviews of civil legal assistance expenditure to ensure the best use is made of public funding for cases. This has led to changes to the scope of Regulation 18 of the Civil Legal Aid Regulations (the special urgency provisions), the introduction of cost limits on all grants of civil legal aid and high cost case management for the most expensive publically funded cases.

The focus of this work is now on options to streamline the legal aid system working with the profession and others with an interest in the legal aid system to identify improvements which can be made to streamline the legal aid system for all those involved.

Eilidh is President of the Law Society of Scotland. She was first elected to the Society’s Council in August 2009 and was re-elected in 2011 and 2014 as one of the representatives for the Edinburgh constituency. She has previously served as Convenor of the Society’s Education and Training Committee, on the Board of Council and she also sits on the editorial board of the Society’s Journal magazine. Born and raised in a rural community in south west Scotland, Eilidh has a good understanding of the issues and concerns of members living and working in our more remote areas. However, much of her professional career has been spent in the larger commercial practices. Before retiring in 2014, she held the position of partner and UK head of Employment and Pensions at Dundas & Wilson CS LLP and previously sat on the firm’s Board. Outside of her legal life, Eilidh is a Trustee of National Museums of Scotland and chairs its Personnel and Remuneration Committee and is a Legal Assessor and a member of the Personnel Appeal Group of the Church of Scotland. In her spare time, Eilidh is an enthusiastic golfer, a bookworm, novice bridge player and very slow jogger. She has two sons, Tom and Matthew, and two working cocker spaniels, Lola and Belle.