Peter Watson

Solicitor Advocate

Professor Peter Watson was one of the first lawyers to qualify as a Solicitor Advocate in Scotland. He has also recently been appointed President Elect of the British Academy of Forensic Sciences.

He was born in Greenock and is the son of a former senior police officer. His university education began at Strathclyde where he studied Economics and Psychology.

He later studied law at Edinburgh University, research at the Scandinavian Maritime Law Institute at Oslo University and studied Petroleum Law at Dundee.

Professor Watson has many outside interests including the Chairmanship of Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity. He has also completed a very successful three year stint as President of Legal Netlink Alliance Europe.

Amongst the many achievements in his long career, Professor Watson played a key role in the following cases:-

The Piper Alpha Disaster Group
The Braer Tanker Disaster Group
The Lockerbie Air Disaster Group
The RAF Chinook crash on the Mull of Kintyre
Representing the families of 16 pupils in the Dunblane Primary school massacre
The inquiry into the death of rally champion Colin McRae
The Shirley McKie fingerprint inquiry

One of Professor Watson’s niche areas is in the media and he has advised ITN, Mirror Group Newspapers (Daily Record and Sunday Mail), SMG, Newsquest (The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times) Border television, Channel Four, Reuters, GMTV and Sky News.

Other prestigious clients included the Scottish Police Federation, The Association of Scottish Police Superintendents and many other public bodies and private individuals.

He has also worked with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. His focus has been on access to justice and integrity of legal systems in former Soviet Union countries.

Professor Watson was Solicitor of the Year 2008 and has been involved in litigation in 12 countries other than the UK.