Inquiry team
Lord Weir, Chair of the Eljamel Inquiry
Lord Weir
The Chair
The Hon. Lord Weir (Robert Weir) was appointed Chair to the Eljamel Inquiry on 29 February 2024.
He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in July 1995. He served as an Advocate Depute between 2005 and 2008, was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2010, and became a floating sheriff of South Strathclyde Dumfries and Galloway in April 2015. He took up a position as a resident sheriff at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in April 2018, sitting as one of the specialist sheriffs in the All Scotland Sheriff Personal Injury Court.
Lord Weir was appointed a judge of the Supreme Courts in April 2020, having sat as a temporary judge of the Court of Session from March 2017.
Jamie Dawson KC, Senior Counsel to Eljamel Inquiry
Jamie Dawson KC
Senior Counsel to the Inquiry
Jamie Dawson KC has been appointed as Senior Counsel to the Inquiry. Jamie was called to the Bar in 2004 and appointed Queen’s (King’s) Counsel in 2020.
Jamie is an experienced advocate in the field of civil law and public inquires. His civil work has focussed on a wide variety of medical and dental negligence cases, personal injury law, as well as trust law and commercial law. Alongside his practice in fatal accident inquiries, he was instructed in the Penrose Inquiry (a Scottish Inquiry) on behalf of a group of patients and a charitable body (2011-2015) and the Infected Blood Inquiry (a UK Inquiry) on behalf of a group of around 300 infected and affected core participants as well as two charitable bodies (2018-2024). He has acted as Senior Counsel to the UK Covid Inquiry (a UK Inquiry) (2022-date), leading in that Inquiry in its module on governmental decision-making in Scotland.
Junior Counsel to the Inquiry
Heather Arlidge
Heather has been appointed First Junior Counsel to the Inquiry.
Heather, who was called to the English Bar in 2009, is an experienced barrister who specialises in medical law and public inquiries.
Her medical negligence experience spans all types of claims concerning medical malpractice and she has particular experience dealing with complex, document-heavy matters requiring close and detailed analysis. She also has considerable experience in complex personal injury claims.
Her public inquiry experience includes acting for a large patient cohort of core participants and 2 charitable bodies in the UK Infected Blood Inquiry, acting as senior Junior Counsel to the Inquiry in the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, and acting as Junior Counsel to the Inquiry in the Undercover Policing Inquiry (England and Wales).
Heather is ranked as a ‘Leading Junior’ in Inquests and Inquiries in the Legal 500 directory.
Cameron Smith
Cameron has been appointed Junior Counsel to the Inquiry.
He is an advocate admitted to the Scottish Bar in 2020 as the Lord Reid Scholar.
Before joining the Inquiry team, Cameron developed strong expertise in clinical negligence and personal injury litigation in both the Sheriff Court and Court of Session.
He has acted in complex medical negligence claims and significant group proceedings.
Ross Crawford
Ross has been appointed Junior Counsel to the Inquiry.
Ross was called to the Bar in 2024 as a Lord Hope Scholar. He is a Writer to His Majesty’s Signet and tutors Civil Litigation at the University of Glasgow.
Ross practices within the sphere of civil law, in particular, personal injury and clinical negligence. In private practice, he is regularly instructed in matters involving fatalities, complex injuries, and surgical difficulties.
His specific interest lies in fatal cases arising from clinical negligence. His practice encompasses inquiry work including fatal accident inquiries and public inquiries.
Lynn Carey, Solicitor to the Eljamel Inquiry
Lynn Carey
Solicitor to the Inquiry
Lynn Carey has been appointed Solicitor to the Inquiry.
Lynn studied law at Glasgow University and qualified as a solicitor in 2010.
She has significant expertise in public inquiry work as she has represented core participants in both Scottish and UK public inquiries.
Lynn was the lead solicitor for the Scottish infected and affected core participants in the UK Infected Blood Inquiry, where she represented nearly 300 individual core participants and two charities who were core participants. She represented the patient and charity core participants in the Penrose Inquiry (Scottish Inquiry into infected blood) and also acted on behalf of core participants in the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry.
Natalie Smith, Secretary to the Inquiry
Natalie Smith
Secretary to the Inquiry
Natalie Smith has been appointed Secretary to the Inquiry.
Natalie joins the Eljamel Inquiry from the Lampard Inquiry, a UK statutory public inquiry which is investigating the deaths of mental health inpatients in Essex between 2000 and 2023.
Prior to her time at the Lampard Inquiry, Natalie worked for 10 years at the UK Department of Health and Social Care in both domestic and international policy areas. Natalie began her career working in the private finance sector.
Daniel Farthing, Deputy Secretary to the Inquiry
Daniel Farthing
Deputy Secretary to the Inquiry
Daniel Farthing has been appointed Deputy Secretary to the Eljamel Inquiry.
After studying politics at Lancaster University, he spent five years working in the office of Charles Kennedy MP. While there he helped to campaign to expose the contaminated blood and blood products disaster. This work intensified when he joined The Haemophilia Society and was involved in setting up the Archer Inquiry.
He later led the charity, Haemophilia Scotland, which was a core participant in two statutory public inquiries into the disaster - Scotland’s Penrose Inquiry and the UK Infected Blood Inquiry.
Prior to joining the Eljamel Inquiry, Daniel spent three and a half years at the mental health charity SAMH, where he headed its national Suicide Prevention Programme.