MDDUS PROFILE


Blazing a trail


Former Lord Advocate and Solicitor General for Scotland Dame Elish Angiolini joins the MDDUS board this Spring. She talks to Summons about her new role and her remarkable legal career


F


OR one of the most high profile and influential figures in the UK legal world, having overseen some of the


most significant changes made to the Scottish criminal justice system, Dame Elish Angiolini QC is remarkably self-effacing. She was the first woman, the first


Procurator Fiscal and the first solicitor to hold either of the posts of Lord Advocate and Solicitor General for Scotland. During her 30-year career she has held senior jobs at the Crown Office, which oversees Scotland’s prosecution service, and has advised the Westminster government on a raſt of major policies and legislation. But despite her considerable achievements,


the 52-year-old does not regard herself as a pioneer. “I think some people would classify me more accurately as an irritant,” she says. In the classic tale of Te Emperor’s New Clothes, Dame Elish likens herself to the character who points out the glaring problem when others do not. It is a trait that stems, she says, from “a Glasgow earthiness of just


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saying it like it is” and from a desire to “make our prosecution system the very best”.


Humble beginnings Much has been made of the impressive career trajectory of this “girl from Govan” whose interest in the law began as a teenager handing out information leaflets and trying to find solutions for poverty-hit families living in sub-standard housing. Te daughter of a coal merchant from a working class shipbuilding community, she had no connections to the legal profession but became the first in her family to go to university. Te youngest of four children, she received a full education grant to study law at Strathclyde University and met living costs by working part-time as a check-out girl and barmaid. An unswerving drive and determination


helped her succeed where many young people from similarly modest backgrounds could not. “I was very fortunate to have parents who were passionate about learning


SUMMONS


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