60 seconds with Head of Policy

Sophie McIvor sat down with Jennifer Paton a year after taking on the role at the Society. Read about what the next year might look like and her team aspirations.

60 seconds with… Jennifer Paton

A year after taking on the role of Head of Policy at the Law Society of Scotland, Jennifer Paton reflects on her time at the Society so far, what the next year might look like and her goals for the policy team.

Jennifer, could you start by telling us a bit about your career so far?

After university in Aberdeen, I moved to Edinburgh to start my traineeship. I trained and had my first NQ job in private practice before moving to a law centre focusing on mental health and incapacity work. After that I worked in an in-house role in a charity before joining the Law Society’s policy team in December 2019. I’ve had a couple of different roles in the team and became Head of Policy in August 2023.

Since becoming Head of Policy you’ve encountered some milestone events, including a UK general election. What was it like navigating so much change in such a short space of time? 

Working in the space where law meets politics means that you always have to be prepared for the unexpected. I’m very lucky to work with a team of brilliant legal and policy professionals who can quickly adapt to the changing policy, international and public affairs landscape that we work in. While we hadn’t necessarily anticipated a summer election, we had already started planning for a UK general election and the team worked really hard to meet the new timescales and issue our election priorities at the start of June.

Talking of change, do you have any aspirations for the policy team now you’ve settled in?

Lots! First and foremost, I’d love to increase awareness of the policy work that we do. In a crowded and noisy public policy landscape, and against a background of often polarised public debate, I believe the Law Society has an important role as an evidence-based influential voice that helps to shape good law, because good law benefits both the public and the profession. I’m particularly keen to raise the profile of our policy work with our members and ideally for as many of them as possible to get involved in shaping that work through membership of our policy committees. We have nearly 30, so there’s something for everyone and we’ll be recruiting again soon.

As we’re talking, Parliament is about to reconvene after the summer recess. What do you think the big issues for your team will be in the next year?

The day the Scottish Government publishes its Programme for Government is always an exciting day for my team, because it gives us a pretty good idea of how our year will play out. This year, we know there will be some important Bills which will continue after the recess, particularly the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Bill. We’ll also be carefully monitoring developments around human rights and legal aid. A few years ago we published a paper with our recommendations on crofting law reform, so it’s really good to see this moving forward with a consultation open at the moment. And mental health and incapacity law is an area that I’m particularly interested in, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the Scottish Government takes forward the recommendations of the Scottish Mental Health Law Review to make sure we have world-leading legislation to uphold the rights of some of the most vulnerable in our society.

I was still at university the last time there was a Labour government at Westminster, so it will be really interesting to see how a new policy direction will take shape. We’ll be keeping a particularly close eye on employment law, immigration law, trade policy and any constitutional reform.  

You’ve been at the Law Society for nearly five years – what’s been a personal highlight for you?

If I had to pick one specific moment, it would be giving evidence to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee of the Scottish Parliament on the National Care Service Bill. It’s not something I could ever have pictured myself doing (and it was nerve-wracking) but having the opportunity to address MSPs alongside the Faculty of Advocates and the Scottish Human Rights Commission was a huge privilege. More generally, I’ve had the chance to meet – and in some cases work closely with – leading figures in the legal world who I’ve long admired. It’s said you should never meet your heroes, but so far I’ve only had good experiences!

Finally, what keeps you busy outside of work?

I’m part of a group of colleagues from the Society who will be doing the Edinburgh Kiltwalk in September for our staff charity Ronald McDonald House Glasgow – so at the moment, lots of long walks in preparation for that.