Margaret Taylor

Columnist/Contributor

I'm a columnist for and contributor to The Herald, having formerly been a business correspondent at the publication. I previously spent nine years at specialist business publication The Lawyer, having started out as a reporter on local weekly the Turriff Advertiser followed by a stint at financial magazine Investment Week.

I'm a columnist for and contributor to The Herald, having formerly been a business correspondent at the publication. I previously spent nine years at specialist business publication The Lawyer, having started out as a reporter on local weekly the Turriff Advertiser followed by a stint at financial magazine Investment Week.

Latest articles from Margaret Taylor

Leading firms avoid Law Society event over coronavirus threat

WHEN the great and the good of the Scottish legal profession gathered in Edinburgh for the Law Society of Scotland’s annual dinner last week, a small number of firms were notable by their absence. Lord Carloway, Lord President of the Court of Session, was one of several senior members of the judiciary in attendance, but representatives from Brodies and Harper Macleod were not.

Legal Focus: Where does a client turn when there’s a need to sue a solicitor?

STEPHEN Blane didn’t know it at the time, but Edinburgh practice Urquharts had big plans for him when he joined it from Ketchen & Stevens nearly two decades ago. Its litigation partner Alastair Thornton, who had recently completed a stint as president of the Law Society of Scotland, was making plans to retire and the firm needed someone to take on the mantle of holding negligent solicitors to account.

Margaret Taylor: Council tax is not reasonable, measured or balanced; it’s time for a rethink

WHEN the SNP first took control of Holyrood in 2007 it did so on a promise that it would abolish council tax and replace it with what it believed was a more progressive local income tax. By adding 3p in the pound on to income tax rates the policy would, the party’s 2007 manifesto said, replace an “unfair” system with one based upon people’s ability to pay. By pledging to lift 85,000 people out of poverty while saving the average Scottish household between £350 and £535 a year, Alex Salmond’s government appeared to be onto a clear winner.