Duncan Hamilton KC

Year of Call
2006
Year of Silk
2021
Devil Masters
Robert Milligan KC
Roddy Dunlop KC
Mathew Jackson KC

Contact

duncanhamilton@amadvocates.co.uk 0131 260 5824 (Practice Manager)

Practice Profile

Duncan is a prominent Silk at the Scottish Bar. He is a Band 1 Senior Counsel as ranked by legal directories in Media Law, Public and Fatal Accident Inquiries, Administrative and Public Law and Crime and Regulatory Law. He is Band 2 ranked in Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence. The Legal 500 shortlisted Duncan as ‘Scottish Silk of the Year’ for both 2023 & 2024.
Duncan has an extensive Inquiry practice, most recently in the high-profile public inquiries into the death of Sheku Bayoh, the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry and the Scottish Covid Inquiry. He also acts regularly in major FAI’s, including the recent ‘M9 FAI’ into the deaths of two members of the public.
He has a specialism in high value personal injury actions and clinical negligence, having acted in all types of such cases for both pursuers and defenders over nearly 20 years.
In media law, Duncan has acted for the BBC and other leading media outlets since 2007 including in the Supreme Court and in applications to the European Court of Human Rights. He also regularly acts for private individuals and has extensive experience of defamation proceedings, privacy actions, interdict proceedings and challenges to reporting restrictions.
In public law, Duncan has acted both for and against public bodies. He successfully represented Alex Salmond in the former First Minister’s successful judicial review of the Scottish Ministers. Equally, Duncan acted on behalf of the Scottish Government from 2013 to 2021 as Standing Junior Counsel. He regularly appeared in judicial review and personal injury cases for the Scottish Ministers, including for Transport Scotland, the Scottish Prison Service and the Forestry Commission.
Duncan was appointed as a Part-Time Sheriff in 2022 with an All-Scotland jurisdiction. He serves as a member of the Shrieval Panel of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland. He was appointed ad hoc Advocate Depute in 2018. Duncan was previously a Member of the Scottish Parliament from 1999-2003.

Education & Professional Career to Date

Bar Traineeship, Simpson & Marwick
Part-time Special Adviser to the First Minister of Scotland (2007–08)
Member of the Scottish Parliament ('MSP'), serving on six Parliamentary Committees including the Justice Committee (1999–2003)

MA (Hons); LLB; Diploma in Legal Practice; Kennedy Scholarship to study at Kennedy School of Government, Harvard

Appointments

  • Part-Time Sheriff (2022–present)
  • Ad Hoc Advocate Depute (2018–present)
  • Standing Junior to the Scottish Government (2013–2021)
  • Member of the Shrieval Panel of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland (2018–present)

Selected Cases

Publications & Seminars

Seminar- The Defamation and Malicious Publications (Scotland) Act 2021 delivered to the Central Legal Office in February 2023

Media Law, Freedom of Expression and the challenges of Social Media, delivered to John Smith Trust in 2017

Scots Law for Journalists, Rosalind McInnes (Ed.), contributor to 8th edition

‘Can the Union Survive?’, Royal Society of Edinburgh seminar, 2012

‘The Rule of Law, Democracy, Media and Constitutional Change’ – 2012

Seminar, Glasgow University School of Law 2011

‘The legal implications of the future expansion of the powers of the Scottish Parliament’, Scottish Public Law Group Annual Conference 2010

Directories

Duncan was shortlisted by the Legal 500 as ‘Silk of the Year’ in Scotland in both 2023 and 2024.
Recommended in The Legal 500 UK Bar Guide since 2016

The Legal 500 give Duncan a Band 1 ranking noting the following:

'Duncan is simply outstanding. He is a pleasure to work with, even under intense pressure.'

'Duncan has an excellent eye for detail, with an exceptional ability to read and absorb large volumes of disclosure material. He excels at identifying the issues of most relevance to the client and developing appropriate strategies.'

'Duncan is highly skilled in PI and medical negligence litigation. He is approachable, accommodating and pragmatic. A sophisticated advocate.'

‘Duncan has the ultimate advocacy skill: the ability to persuade. He does this by an ability to tailor his approach to the individual judge or sheriff. He knows when to push and when to give ground, in a graceful way which notably lacks either blandishment or personal ego.’

He is also ranked as a Band 1 Silk by Chambers and Partners UK Bar. He has maintained that Band 1 ranking as Counsel for 12 years.

'Duncan is ferociously intelligent, hard-working, responsive and easy to work with.'

'Duncan Hamilton KC is a good strategist, affable and very good behind the scenes.'

'Duncan is simply excellent. He is one of the very best media law advocates in Scotland.'

'His knowledge and skill in that area are unmatched, and his advocacy skills are fantastic.'

'Duncan is ferociously intelligent and hard-working. He is easy to work with and responsive.'

'Duncan has exemplary interpersonal skills and a superb eye for detail.'

'His ability to pick up all sorts of tricky issues is first-class and he is great at consultations with both expert witnesses and clients.'

"He is excellent at building a rapport with clients during consultations, which puts them at ease and assists in preparing the case.”

"He is brilliant and so enthusiastic about the work, as well as being an engaging and persuasive advocate."

“Duncan Hamilton KC is well viewed for his work in judicial reviews, particularly those crossing over with media law. He is particularly well known for having represented Alex Salmond in his challenge to the Scottish Government’s investigation into allegations of misconduct.’

‘An excellent advocate who solicitors go back to time and time again for media law. He is reliable and thorough, and can be relied upon to fight in court when that is required.’

"He is always willing to go the extra mile in cases."

"He has a media savvy other advocates struggle to match, and has a real gravitas in court"

"He is brilliant and so enthusiastic about the work, as well as being an engaging and persuasive advocate."

"He is pragmatic, extremely persuasive and very good with difficult judges.”