Donald Findlay
Encyclopedia
Donald Findlay QC
, (born 17 March 1951) is a well-known senior advocate
and Queen's Counsel
in Scotland
. He has also held positions as a vice chairman of Rangers Football Club
and twice Rector of the University of St Andrews
. He is now chairman of Cowdenbeath
.
He is well known for a distinctive style of dress and manner, particularly the smoking of a pipe, as well as his staunch support for Unionism in Scotland and the Conservative Party
. He has faced some controversy over several incidents where he sang songs and told allegedly sectarian jokes.
, Fife
, the son of a church beadle. He was subsequently educated at Harris Academy
in Dundee
, and later at the University of Dundee
and at the University of Glasgow
. His academic links with the University of St Andrews
(of which Dundee was once part) saw him elected as Lord Rector in 1993 and again in 1996. After his retirement from this position, he took the position of Chancellor of the University's Strafford Club. St Andrews, allegedly, dropped plans to award him an honorary degree
after one of his controversial outbursts. At this time, he was also noted to be suffering from severe depression and later revealed that he had contemplated suicide.
Findlay is also an atheist. In the mid 1990s he left his third wife Jennie to set up house with the Reporting Scotland
television reporter Paddy Christie. This relationship later foundered.
In May 2011 Findlay was sent a parcel in the post to Cowdenbeath football club where he is chairman. Initially it was thought to contain a bomb but it was later revealed to contain a knife.
. He took silk, becoming a Queen's Counsel
in 1988, but his behaviour has been censured by the Faculty of Advocates
on more than one occasion (see below). He has served as a defence lawyer
in many high-profile murder cases including Jodi Jones, Mark Scott
and the Kriss Donald
murder trials. He represented Peter Tobin
, the murderer of Angelika Kluk in the so-called "body in the church" case. Findlay is a member of the Mackinnon stables.
At present, he is also a noted after-dinner speaker and in 1997 was a high profile campaigner on behalf of the unsuccessful Think Twice campaign which supported a double-no vote in the Scottish devolution referendum.
In 2006 he was a defence counsel in the trial of Mohammed Atif Siddique
, which saw the youth sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for collecting and sharing online information about terrorists. Donald Findlay successfully appealed this conviction in January 2010.
Glasgow
based newspaper Daily Record
reported that Donald Findlay was one of the highest paid lawyers in 2007, earning £350,000 from his high profile cases.
In June 2010 Findlay was elected chairman of the Faculty of Advocates Criminal Bar Association.
, but is mostly noted in Scotland for his support of Rangers
, a historically Protestant football club, and for engaging in controversial behaviour that has been widely interpreted as being anti-Catholic
in nature.
In May 1999 he was accused of sectarianism, after being filmed singing The Sash
at a private party organised by a Rangers Supporters Club, following the Scottish Cup Final
in which Rangers beat Celtic 1-0. For his role in this event, Findlay was forced to resign from the Board of Rangers FC. After this incident Findlay admitted to feeling so pursued by the media portrayal of him that he had considered suicide.
In May 2005, shortly after the death of Pope John Paul II
, while speaking at Larne
Rangers Social Club in Northern Ireland
he said "It's very smoky in here tonight - has another fucking Pope
died?" The Scotsman
reported that he went on to tell a vulgar joke about a nun, while The Herald
reported that his routine was "alleged to have been littered with obscenities and jokes about Catholics" although Findlay has stated that he also made jokes about Protestantism
and about the Protestant clergyman and politician Ian Paisley
. It is believed that the Faculty of Advocates
passed a vote of no confidence on him following the controversy over his comments. He was also fined £3,500 by the Faculty of Advocates.
Findlay was cleared of an allegation of misconduct before the Faculty of Advocates
in 2007 following a complaint regarding his conduct at the Rangers Supporters Club in Larne
and contribution to a book entitled How Soccer Explains The World - An Unlikely Theory Of Globalisation
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
, (born 17 March 1951) is a well-known senior advocate
Advocate
An advocate is a term for a professional lawyer used in several different legal systems. These include Scotland, South Africa, India, Scandinavian jurisdictions, Israel, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man...
and Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. He has also held positions as a vice chairman of Rangers Football Club
Rangers F.C.
Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...
and twice Rector of the University of St Andrews
Rector of the University of St Andrews
The Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews is a university official chosen every three years by the students of the University of St Andrews...
. He is now chairman of Cowdenbeath
Cowdenbeath F.C.
Cowdenbeath Football Club are a professional Scottish football team based in the town of Cowdenbeath, Fife. They currently play in the Second Division of the Scottish Football League. The club plays its home games at Central Park in the centre of the town which has the unusual feature of a motor...
.
He is well known for a distinctive style of dress and manner, particularly the smoking of a pipe, as well as his staunch support for Unionism in Scotland and the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
. He has faced some controversy over several incidents where he sang songs and told allegedly sectarian jokes.
Personal life
Donald Findlay was born on 17 March 1951 in CowdenbeathCowdenbeath
Cowdenbeath is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is 5 miles north-east of Dunfermline and 18 miles north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a Police Burgh in 1890...
, Fife
Fife
Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...
, the son of a church beadle. He was subsequently educated at Harris Academy
Harris Academy
Harris Academy is a co-educational comprehensive school located in the West End of Dundee, Scotland.-Admissions:The school's current rector is Mr. James Thewliss....
in Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
, and later at the University of Dundee
University of Dundee
The University of Dundee is a university based in the city and Royal burgh of Dundee on eastern coast of the central Lowlands of Scotland and with a small number of institutions elsewhere....
and at the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
. His academic links with the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
(of which Dundee was once part) saw him elected as Lord Rector in 1993 and again in 1996. After his retirement from this position, he took the position of Chancellor of the University's Strafford Club. St Andrews, allegedly, dropped plans to award him an honorary degree
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
after one of his controversial outbursts. At this time, he was also noted to be suffering from severe depression and later revealed that he had contemplated suicide.
Findlay is also an atheist. In the mid 1990s he left his third wife Jennie to set up house with the Reporting Scotland
Reporting Scotland
Reporting Scotland is BBC Scotland's national television news programme. The programme first aired on 1 April 1968, with three main presenters - the most famous being Mary Marquis...
television reporter Paddy Christie. This relationship later foundered.
In May 2011 Findlay was sent a parcel in the post to Cowdenbeath football club where he is chairman. Initially it was thought to contain a bomb but it was later revealed to contain a knife.
Career
A combination of high-profile controversies, acute legal skills and a well-cultivated image has generated Findlay a lot of coverage in the Scottish press in recent years and he now has one of the highest legal profiles in Scotland and widely considered to be Scotland's premier criminal law advocateAdvocate
An advocate is a term for a professional lawyer used in several different legal systems. These include Scotland, South Africa, India, Scandinavian jurisdictions, Israel, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man...
. He took silk, becoming a Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
in 1988, but his behaviour has been censured by the Faculty of Advocates
Faculty of Advocates
The Faculty of Advocates is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary...
on more than one occasion (see below). He has served as a defence lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
in many high-profile murder cases including Jodi Jones, Mark Scott
Mark Scott
Mark Scott may refer to:*Mark Scott , semi-finalist of American Idol*Mark Scott , American talk show host*Mark Scott , TV actor and host of the TV series Home Run Derby...
and the Kriss Donald
Kriss Donald
Kriss Donald was a Scottish fifteen-year-old white male who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in Glasgow in 2004 by a gang of Asian Muslim men of Pakistani descent, some of whom fled to Pakistan after the crime...
murder trials. He represented Peter Tobin
Peter Tobin
Peter Britton Tobin is a convicted Scottish serial killer and sex offender now serving a sentence of life imprisonment for the murders of three young women....
, the murderer of Angelika Kluk in the so-called "body in the church" case. Findlay is a member of the Mackinnon stables.
At present, he is also a noted after-dinner speaker and in 1997 was a high profile campaigner on behalf of the unsuccessful Think Twice campaign which supported a double-no vote in the Scottish devolution referendum.
In 2006 he was a defence counsel in the trial of Mohammed Atif Siddique
Mohammed Atif Siddique
Mohammed Atif Siddique is a Scottish prisoner who was found guilty, but later cleared on appeal, of one of his convictions "collecting terrorist-related information, setting up websites...and circulating inflammatory terrorist publications", resulting in a sentence of eight years' imprisonment...
, which saw the youth sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for collecting and sharing online information about terrorists. Donald Findlay successfully appealed this conviction in January 2010.
Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
based newspaper Daily Record
Daily Record (Scotland)
The Daily Record is a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. It had been the best-selling daily paper in Scotland for many years with a paid circulation in August 2011 of 307,794 . It is now outsold by its arch-rival the Scottish Sun which in September 2010 had a circulation of 339,586 in...
reported that Donald Findlay was one of the highest paid lawyers in 2007, earning £350,000 from his high profile cases.
In June 2010 Findlay was elected chairman of the Faculty of Advocates Criminal Bar Association.
Controversies
Findlay is an atheistAtheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, but is mostly noted in Scotland for his support of Rangers
Rangers F.C.
Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...
, a historically Protestant football club, and for engaging in controversial behaviour that has been widely interpreted as being anti-Catholic
Anti-Catholicism
Anti-Catholicism is a generic term for discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed against Catholicism, and especially against the Catholic Church, its clergy or its adherents...
in nature.
In May 1999 he was accused of sectarianism, after being filmed singing The Sash
The Sash
The Sash is a ballad from Ireland commemorating the victory of King William III in the Williamite war in Ireland in 1690–1691....
at a private party organised by a Rangers Supporters Club, following the Scottish Cup Final
1999 Scottish Cup Final
The 1999 Scottish Cup Final was played on May 29, 1999 at Hampden Park in Glasgow and was the final of the 114th Scottish Cup. Celtic and Rangers contested the match, Rangers won the match 1–0, thanks to Rod Wallace's 48th minute goal. This was the first match at Hampden Park since the stadium was...
in which Rangers beat Celtic 1-0. For his role in this event, Findlay was forced to resign from the Board of Rangers FC. After this incident Findlay admitted to feeling so pursued by the media portrayal of him that he had considered suicide.
In May 2005, shortly after the death of Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
, while speaking at Larne
Larne
Larne is a substantial seaport and industrial market town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland with a population of 18,228 people in the 2001 Census. As of 2011, there are about 31,000 residents in the greater Larne area. It has been used as a seaport for over 1,000 years, and is...
Rangers Social Club in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
he said "It's very smoky in here tonight - has another fucking Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
died?" The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
reported that he went on to tell a vulgar joke about a nun, while The Herald
The Herald (Glasgow)
The Herald is a broadsheet newspaper published Monday to Saturday in Glasgow, and available throughout Scotland. As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 47,226, giving it a lead over Scotland's other 'quality' national daily, The Scotsman, published in Edinburgh.The 1889 to 1906 editions...
reported that his routine was "alleged to have been littered with obscenities and jokes about Catholics" although Findlay has stated that he also made jokes about Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
and about the Protestant clergyman and politician Ian Paisley
Ian Paisley
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC is a politician and church minister in Northern Ireland. As the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party , he and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness were elected First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively on 8 May 2007.In addition to co-founding...
. It is believed that the Faculty of Advocates
Faculty of Advocates
The Faculty of Advocates is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary...
passed a vote of no confidence on him following the controversy over his comments. He was also fined £3,500 by the Faculty of Advocates.
Findlay was cleared of an allegation of misconduct before the Faculty of Advocates
Faculty of Advocates
The Faculty of Advocates is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary...
in 2007 following a complaint regarding his conduct at the Rangers Supporters Club in Larne
Larne
Larne is a substantial seaport and industrial market town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland with a population of 18,228 people in the 2001 Census. As of 2011, there are about 31,000 residents in the greater Larne area. It has been used as a seaport for over 1,000 years, and is...
and contribution to a book entitled How Soccer Explains The World - An Unlikely Theory Of Globalisation
See also
- Rector of the University of St AndrewsRector of the University of St AndrewsThe Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews is a university official chosen every three years by the students of the University of St Andrews...
- Rangers F.C.Rangers F.C.Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...
- Scottish Conservative and Unionist PartyScottish Conservative and Unionist PartyThe Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party is the part of the British Conservative Party that operates in Scotland. Like the UK party, it has a centre-right political philosophy which promotes conservatism and strong British Unionism...