Anderson Strathern appoints trio of directors

We’ve recently made a trio of senior appointments, with Gillian Harkness-McKinlay, Chris Devlin and James McMillan joining us as directors. Gillian joins from Burness Paull and specialises in public sector and charity work, Chris previously worked at Shepherd and Wedderburn and assumes the role of Director, Planning and Environment, and James McMillan becomes a Director, heading up the newly established Corporate Crime, Regulatory and Investigations team, joining from Dubai-based Al Tamimi & Company, the largest law firm in the Middle East.

Gillian brings extensive experience of project managing large-scale public sector outsourcing projects and third sector mergers, and advising on corporate governance and project finance in public sector projects. She is also a member of the Charity Law Subcommittee of the Law Society of Scotland.

Chris spent over a decade at Shepherd and Wedderburn, specialising in planning and environment law, and has worked closely with clients in the renewable energy and housebuilding sectors. He also brings strong experience in roads law, and applications for judicial review and statutory appeals to the Court of Session in planning matters.  In recent years, he advised City of Edinburgh Council on various elements of the new St James Centre.

James worked at Dentons before joining Dubai-based Al Tamimi & Company, the largest legal firm in the Middle East, in 2018. He now heads up our newly established Corporate Crime, Regulatory and Investigations team. James has extensive experience in advocacy, international white collar fraud cases, bribery, proceeds of crime, health and safety, and environmental-related prosecutions.

Bruce Farquhar, our Chair, said:

“We are committed to finding the best legal talent in Scotland and these three senior level appointments demonstrate just that. The public and third sectors, planning and the environment, corporate crime and commercial disputes are key areas of growth for Anderson Strathern so it’s an opportune time to make these strategic hires. We’re excited to have Gillian, Chris and James on board.”