Top-earning QC will advise on legal aid

SCOTLAND'S top-earning legal aid QC has been appointed to the body that paid him more than £300,000 last year.

Paul McBride, who has represented a string of high-profile killers, last year topped the list of criminal lawyers, earning 357,600 from legal aid.

Yesterday Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, announced that Mr McBride was one of three new members of the Scottish Legal Aid Board, which spends around 164 million of taxpayers' money a year on giving people access to justice.

The other appointees are Graham Bell, QC, and Group Captain Graham Watson.

The appointments will run for four years and come with a salary of 8,328 for about three and a half days' work a month.

The new appointees will help deliver major reforms in legal aid spending, including proposals to widen access to aid in civil cases, as well as changes to the distribution of legal aid in criminal cases.

Through his work with the Faculty of Advocates, Mr McBride has been critical of some aspects of legal aid payments to lawyers, but yesterday he announced that he would now be taking a less "partisan" role.

Mr McBride said: "There are on-going discussions about fees with counsel and solicitors, but I'm no longer operating in the same role. I'm not on the board as a partisan participant."

He said he was looking forward to helping the board implement its programme of reform. His role, he explained, would be to help drive through the Scottish Executive's desire to increase access to justice.

"I'm certainly not doing it for the money. In fact I'll probably earn less money. I just thought I could make a contribution and assist the board.

"I have 20 years of experience so I feel I have a good idea what the important issues are in relation to legal aid."

He said the fact he had been appointed to the board and last year topped the legal aid earners' chart was "absolutely coincidental".

"I would have applied no matter where I was on the list. I don't think that in any way affected the decision to appoint me," he said.

Mr McBride has been involved in some of Scotland's highest-profile cases, including that of Mark Bonini, who murdered two-year Andrew Morton in the Royston area of Glasgow.

He is currently representing Angela Baillie, the lawyer who smuggled drugs into prison.

Mr Bell has been a member of the Bar since 1980 and a QC since 1990. He is a member of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which is currently considering the case of the Lockerbie bomber.

Gp Capt Watson, who spent 31 years in the RAF, is a member of Fife NHS Board. He has more than 30 years of senior management experience in a wide range of appointments.

Meanwhile, two of the present board - Ellen Morton, a member of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, and solicitor David Nicol - have been reappointed to their positions.

As well as assessing legal aid applications, it is also the board's job to scrutinise and settle bills submitted by solicitors and counsel.

Legal aid has risen by 6.4 million since 2003, to 152.4 million in 2005, driven by a sharp hike in legal assistance.