Test yourself

LEGAL TRIVIA

1. Which famous married couple first met at the law firm of Sidley Austin?

2. Which Sheriff Court has the third highest number of resident Sheriffs?

3. If Lord Rodger of Earlsferry was to be lifted in his Barony, at which sheriff court would he appear from custody?

4. Which current Glasgow sheriff triggered the demise of temporary sheriffs by prosecuting Starrs and Chalmers?

5. Which famous Scottish judge was the nephew of a red Clydesider?

6. Which of the following Glasgow housing schemes never had an office of Ross Harper & Murphy – Pollok, Easterhouse, Castlemilk, Maryhill, Drumchapel?

7. The Wellmeadow Café was the locus delicti of which famous case?

8. Apart from the Law Society of Scotland, what other national professional organisation has its headquarters in Drumsheugh Gardens?

9. We are all suffering as a result of the high LIBOR rate, but what does “LIBOR” stand for?

10. Douglas Mill, the former Chief Executive of the Law Society of Scotland, supports which football team?

LAW SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND

1. Douglas Mill stood down this year as the Law Society’s Secretary and Chief Executive. Whom did he succeed as Secretary?

2. Lorna Jack, the Society’s new Chief Executive, joins from which organisation?

3. Bizarrely, the Society has only ever had one woman President. What is her name?

4. What was the address of the Society before it moved to 26 Drumsheugh Gardens?

5. Janet Hood leads the Society’s ILG. What is the ILG?

6. Which sister Society of the Law Society of Scotland has its headquarters in Blackhall Place?

7. Cameron Ritchie succeeded Douglas Brown, who succeeded Frank Crowe as whose representative on the Law Society Council?

8. Where did the Society open an office in January 1993?

9. Approximately how many calls are taken by the Society’s Professional Practice Department each week: 50, 150 or 250?

10. In which beautiful Renfrewshire town is the Society’s Journal produced?

POLITICS

1. What was the date of the referendum which preceded the Scotland Act 1998?

2. In the current Scottish Government what links Kenny MacAskill, Nicola Sturgeon, Fergus Ewing and Elish Angiolini?

3. Name the Convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee?

4. A motion passed by the Scottish Parliament agreeing to Westminster legislating for a matter over which Holyrood has competence is named after the minister who piloted the Scotland Act through the House of Lords. What is such a motion called?

5. What was Donald Dewar’s middle name?

6. Jim Murphy succeeded which Scottish lawyer as Secretary of State for Scotland?

7. Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah was the original co-accused of which famous Scottish prisoner?

8. Who is the current Attorney General?

9. In 2008 which MP resigned to fight a by-election on a civil liberties platform?

10. Which three Scots have served as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain in the last 20 years?

LITERATURE

1. In which prison was the Count of Monte Cristo incarcerated?

2. Which literary heroine is hanged at Wintoncester for the murder of her cousin?

3. In which poem does the narrator complain:“Matched with an aged wife, I meet and dole unequal laws unto a savage race, that hoards and sleeps and feeds and knows not me”?

4. Where does the murder take place in the final chapters of Zola’s La Bête Humaine?

5. In which Shakespeare play is Queen Mab said to come:“O’er lawyers fingers who straight dream on fees”?

6. Who was the victim of The Murder in the Cathedral in the play by T S Eliot?

7. In which novel by Walter Scott does the heroine walk from Edinburgh to London to secure a royal pardon for her sister who has been wrongly convicted of murdering her child?

8. Which unfinished novel by Robert Louis Stevenson has as its hero the only son of a fictitious Lord Justice Clerk?

9. Jarndyce v Jarndyce is an interminable court case used by Dickens to attack the English legal system in the novel Bleak House. What is the case about?

10. What were the first names of Renton or Brown?

SHRIEVAL GEOGRAPHY

Match the 10 sheriffs below to their courts.

1. A M Cowan

2. Peter Gillam

3. W H Holligan

4. I S McDonald

5. R H Dickson

6. K R Robb

7. A M Cubie

8. A F Deutsch

9. J Montgomery

10. A J M Duff

HISTORY

1. Which Edinburgh advocate, granted bail on a charge of sedition, absconded to France?

2. What was the name of the advocate who co-authored the Scottish National Covenant signed in Greyfriars churchyard in 1638?

3. Who was the subject of the biography Let History Judge?

4. Prior to the opening of the new Glasgow Sheriff Court in Carlton Place, the court had three separate locations in the city centre. The main building was in Ingram Street and jury trials and referrals were dealt with in Lanarkshire House. The third building was used mainly for civil business. Where was it situated?

5. Charlotte Corday was the perpetrator of a famous murder. Who was the victim?

6. Under which Roman emperor were the Institutes of Gaius written?

7. Who famously addressed the High Court from the dock with the words “I stand here not as the accused but as the accuser”?

8. Prior to Tony Blair, who was the last British Prime Minister to hold a legal qualification?

9. In which profession did Sir Bernard Spilsbury become famous between the two world wars?

10. In which decade did the “Dundas Riots” take place, when the good citizens of Edinburgh marked the King’s birthday by smashing the windows of the house belonging to the Lord Advocate, Robert Dundas?

FILMS

1. What is the name of the character played by Robert Duvall who acts as lawyer and consigliere to the Corleone family in The Godfather parts one and two?

2. In the John Ford film, name the actor who plays the part of the man who becomes famous as “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, and name the actor who plays the part of the man who actually did shoot Liberty Valance?

3. Which actor plays the part of Tom Cruise’s senior partner in the film of John Grisham’s book The Firm?

4. Which famous actor plays the part of Clarence Darrow in the film Inherit the Wind, about the Stopes Monkey trial?

5. Which two great screen actors represent the opposing sides of a medical negligence claim in the David Mamet scripted film The Verdict?

6. Which crime lies at the centre of the plot in Terence Rattigan’s The Winslow Boy, which was famously made into a firm starring Robert Donat in the role of Sir Edward Carson?

7. What line from the US Constitution provides the title for an Al Pacino film about the American criminal justice system?

8. Who played the part of “My Cousin Vinny”?

9. In which film does Robert De Niro play the part of a released convict who returns to stalk the family of the defence lawyer whom he believes is responsible for his conviction?

10. Who played the part of real life solicitor Gareth Pierce in an Oscar winning film about the Birmingham Six?

MUSIC

1. What apparent crime is central to the plot of Rossini’s Opera La Gazza Ladra?

2. An imminent judicial arrival was intimated in which song by Shorty Long?

3. Charles Penrose famously sang about an overweight member of the constabulary in which song?

4. What issue is before the court in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Trial by Jury?

5. The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart and originally Sam Brown sang about appealing for evidence in which song?

6. What terrible crime does the heroine contemplate committing in Bellini’s opera Norma?

7. “The prison band was there and they began to wail” is the second line of which rock and roll classic?

8. Who wrote and performed the song “Lawyers in Love”?

9. “And the County Judge, who held a grudge, will search for evermore.” Who will he search for?

10. Which sheriff’s decision to sing in court was the subject matter of a criminal appeal?

SPORT

 

1. Which former partner in the Lanarkshire firm of Ballantyne & Copland became chief executive of Celtic Football Club?

2. Which former Rangers player was involved in a reported criminal appeal case which overturned his drink driving conviction?

3. In 2008, which premiership footballer served time for assaulting two men outside McDonald’s in Liverpool?

4. Which Grade 1 Scottish referee is on the Criminal Legal Aid Register?

5. Which sporting company was incorporated on 28 May 2003 and went into creditors voluntary liquidation on 21 August 2008?

6. Which former English front-row forward turned television rugby commentator, is also an English qualified solicitor?

7. Which British athlete tried unsuccessfully to reach the Beijing Olympics by route of the High Court?

8. Ian Botham and Alan Lamb unsuccessfully sued which Pakistani cricket captain over allegations of ball tampering?

9. Which Olympic rowing silver medallist holds a law degree from the University of Edinburgh?

10. Where is the 2009 Lawyers Rugby World Cup to take place?

NUMBERS

1. How many sheriff courts are there in Scotland?

2. To the nearest 5%, as at 31 October 2007 what percentage of solicitors on the Roll were women?

3. Is the maximum number of voting members of the Council of the Law Society of Scotland: 33, 43 or 53?

4. The Law Society office is at 26 Drumsheugh Gardens. At what number in Drumsheugh Gardens is the Scottish Legal Aid Board?

 

5. For how many years did Douglas Mill serve as Secretary and Chief Executive of the Law Society of Scotland?

6. How many teams entered this year’s Donald Dewar Memorial Debating Competition: 133, 153 or 173?

7. Criminal defence lawyer Joe Beltrami finally retired this year. What age is he?

8. As at 31 October 2007, to the nearest 1,000, how many solicitors held practising certificates in Scotland?

9. To the nearest half million, what is the budget of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission?

10. What is the maximum number of Court of Session judges: 30, 34 or 38?