24 November 2008

Fiscal appointed to senior Law position at University of Dundee

Betty Bott, a senior figure in the Scottish Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, has been appointed as the Director of Legal and Professional Development at the School of Law at the University of Dundee.

Betty Bott is currently the Assistant Procurator Fiscal in Edinburgh. She has been a member of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service for 31 years and has worked in many different parts of Scotland - including Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee, Perth, Kirkcaldy and Glasgow.

Looking forward to her new role, she said, 'I feel privileged to be offered the opportunity to lead an inspired initiative at Dundee to bring the law right into the heart of the modern business world so that students make informed career decisions, understand the critical part that the law plays in all our lives and link up with prospective employers in their chosen avenue of law at an early stage.

'I want the Law School to be a place where people from all walks of life, at different times in their lives, can tap into legal teaching at all levels so that an understanding of the law becomes a relevant and necessary part of every modern business and professional person’s life.

'I believe that in establishing the links and teaching mechanism to support these ideals the Law School in Dundee is leading the way in legal education in Scotland and I am delighted to be a part of this exciting programme.'

In her career with the Fiscal Service and the Crown Office Betty has specialised in prosecuting crimes against children and vulnerable witnesses, and those of domestic violence. In doing so she has been instrumental, over the last 20 years, not only in helping to change the law relating to the way in which vulnerable witnesses give evidence, but also in teaching criminal justice partners and members of the medical and nursing professions about interviewing children and vulnerable witnesses so as to empower them to give evidence on these matters in court.

She helped the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to establish in 2001 what was to become the Victim Information and Advice Service - a part of the prosecution service which gives case-specific information to vulnerable victims of crime so that they are kept up to date with the progress of their cases in court.

Betty taught on the Diploma in Legal Practice at the University of Dundee from 1981- 1999, latterly as Head Tutor of Pleading and Advocacy. Since then she has been an active member of the Industrial Board of the Law School and has assisted with a number of extra curricular activities run by the Law School.

She has always actively supported many initiatives between schools and the University to educate children about the law. In recognition of her services to the Law School she was made an Honorary Fellow in September 2007.

The newly created post is a central element of the Law School’s ongoing development of what the University’s Principal, Sir Alan Langlands, has described as 'a law school for the 21st century'.

The role brings together responsibility for training for the legal profession in the form of the Diploma in Legal Practice and what the Law School’s Dean, Professor Alan Page has described as - a third strand of activities'.

'Excellence in teaching and learning and the pursuit of research of the highest level are at the core of a good law school but in today’s increasingly competitive and demanding legal environment they are no longer the only activities which a law school must pursue if it is to serve the needs of students, the legal professions and the broader community,' said Professor Page.

'Bringing together developments on a wide range of issues such as Continuing Professional Development, alumni support, schools outreach and professional training and development into a coherently planned and supported ‘third strand’ of activity within the Law School is a central element of our plan to take the Law School forward. Betty’s appointment as Director of Legal and Professional Development allows us to take all of these activities to a new level of development and delivery.'

This latest appointment within the Law School follows on a period of significant development and growth which has seen the launch of seven new taught Masters programmes and the creation of a new option which allow Scots LLB students to satisfy all the English and Scots Law Society requirements in a single degree programme.

For more on Law at Dundee see: www.dundee.ac.uk/law/.

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University of Dundee
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