Lynda Towers
Director of Public LawLynda is director of public law within our Litigation division based in Edinburgh.
Lynda has spent most of her career with the Scottish Government, advising on public law issues. She has been involved in instructing and drafting legislation and has had considerable experience in public sector litigation in courts in Scotland and across the UK. She specialised in judicial review challenges, planning and other statutory appeals and in general reparation.
Lynda spent 8 years as Solicitor to the Scottish Parliament where she advised the Presiding Officer, the Chief Executive and the Committees of the Parliament on matters of legislative competence and on wider issues of public law. Lynda has a significant breadth of understanding of public and constitutional law issues in Scotland, of related litigation and of the policy and process surrounding law and decision making.
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Section 35 and the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill: UK Government uses Order for first time
At the end of last year, the Supreme Court had delivered their judgment on whether the Scottish Government could hold an Independence referendum in October 2023 or whether holding such a referendum was reserved to the UK Government under the Scotland Act 1998. The Supreme Court decided in favour of the UK Government and the legal question was settled on whether the Referendum could go ahead. Legally it was not possible. This was a very big question and the Scottish Government is left looking for political solutions to take the Independence Referendum forward which will be discussed at their conference in March 2023. The view among lawyers was that big legal and constitutional (if not political) questions had been dealt with for the moment. How wrong we were.
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Constitutional questions - Scottish Independence Referendum update
Politics has been a very odd place over the last few weeks and months, where apparently in starting consideration of a policy proposal, the law has not always seemed to be the first point of reference and politics rather than law has been the deciding factor. It is almost a relief to be back looking at "the law" around the possibility of holding a second independence referendum in Scotland. The politics is never far away on this issue but for the moment the law is driving its current course.
