Interview: Patricia Barclay

While sole practitioners are by most accounts “head down and working late”, Patricia Barclay admitted to having her feet up and watching the football last Wednesday evening.

The advantage of working for yourself is that your timetable is your own, if not always your time.

Apart from her Bonaccord practice in “commercialising scientific innovation” she has also found time to bring to Edinburgh in 2014 a two-day International Bar Association (IBA) conference on access to healthcare.

“I swung the idea of a book of essays by saying I’d edit it and persuaded them to come to Edinburgh because, … why not?,” she says.

The IBA is the “united nations” of the worldwide legal profession, and the event will be run under the auspices of its healthcare and life sciences committee, the committee formerly known as medicine and law. Barclay is its secretary.

“Changing the name has helped generate a bit of energy. Most people thought it was about medical malpractice but actually it comes under the larger IBA umbrella of individual rights,” she explains.

With international events the planning has to start early.

“We’ll be looking to bring in some high-profile speakers and look at ways of continuing the debate after the conference,” Barclay says.

“The New York Bar Association and the Law Society of Scotland are already on board as sponsors and I have no doubt there will be more when the dates and venue are fixed.”

Barclay has form. As chair of the mediation techniques subcommittee she helped organise a successful event at the annual IBA conference.

“That was very productive, not just because we had high-profile speakers but we also put on training sessions so people got an insight into the techniques. I don’t believe in having a meeting unless there’s a purpose.”

The proposed sessions touch on commercial law, licensing and intellectual property, as well as social and cultural dynamics.

“Vitamin D deficiency is an issue around the world but in countries where women are covered up or have more limited exposure to sun, what’s the answer? In the USA they add vitamin D to milk. Would we allow that here?” she asks.

“What is the balance between children’s rights and parental rights in access to treatment?

“What are rights of access to care and treatment in public-sector medical systems? I think we’ll have plenty to fill two days.”