Bruce Beveridge new Law Society Vice President elect

Bruce Beveridge has been elected as Vice President of the Law Society of Scotland for 2012-13. He will take up the post in May.

Bruce Beveridge was the winner of the three-way contest which involved all members of the Society's governing Council voting in an all postal secret ballot.  Ian Bryce came second in the contest and David Newton third.

Beveridge said: "I'm delighted and honoured to have been elected by my fellow Council members to be the next vice president of the Society. Ian Bryce and David Newton are distinguished members of the solicitor profession and have made enormous contributions to Council.  I look forward to continuing to work with them over the coming year."

Beveridge, formerly Deputy Keeper at Registers of Scotland and most recently Deputy Director, Rural Affairs, was admitted to the profession in 1994 and joined Council in 2005 and again in 2011 representing the constituency of Edinburgh . He has worked on a number of Law Society committees and is currently convener of its constitution working party.

He said: "I  am fully   committed to working with Austin as our next President, the Council and the staff at the Society to ensure we are considered to be a valued, worthwhile and effective body in delivering our aim of leading a successful and respected Scottish legal profession.

"I believe we can make good progress in promoting the work of the Council and the Society and continuing to support the profession during a highly challenging period of change and economic instability. It  is vital that we also continue to build strong, cooperative working relationships with interest groups across the profession, other business sectors and the public, and maintain our current President Cameron Ritchie's 'One Profession' initiative."

Law Society President, Cameron Ritchie said: "I'd like to offer my congratulations to Bruce. He has contributed a great deal to the Society both as a Council member and through his committee work. He will bring a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge to the role when he takes up the Vice Presidency next May.

"With Austin Lafferty as President and Bruce Beveridge as Vice President, Scottish solicitors can have confidence that there will a strong and committed team at the helm of their professional body from next May."

ENDS                                   16 DECEMBER 2011

Note to editors

Bruce Beveridge's manifesto can be read on the Society's website:

The election for the Vice-President was conducted by an all postal secret ballot of Council members using the Single Transferable Vote method. Council members were asked to rank the three candidates in order of preference.  41 valid votes were cast with the total number of first preference votes for each candidate as follows

Bruce Beveridge             - 18
Ian Bryce                      - 12
David Newton                 - 11

Since no candidate received a majority of the valid votes cast, the candidate with the fewest votes - David Newton - was eliminated and his votes redistributed amongst the remaining candidates according to second preferences.

After this distribution, the total number of votes for each remaining candidate was

Bruce Beveridge             - 22
Ian Bryce                      - 16

Three of David Newton's first preference votes did not transfer.

With Bruce Beveridge having secured a majority of the valid votes cast, he was declared the winner and Vice-President elect for the Law Society of Scotland for 2011/12.

16 December 2011