Gillian Mawdsley

Gillian Mawdsley is currently a Scottish practising solicitor.  Her professional background includes private and public sector work during her legal career which involved policy work on secondment to the Scottish Government and latterly with the Law Society of Scotland.

She has longstanding interests and experience in legal and medical law that is relevant to this role. These include regulation and governance from Government and lay membership roles.

Her academic background includes both medical and forensic medicine where she has undertaken a number of talks/presentations. She is actively engaged in writing and publishing including a book on law practice and policy on fatal accident inquiries and articles on a range of a diverse range of topics such as criminal law, history vicarious trauma and climate change. 

She has worked on a range of complex medical Fatal Accident Inquiries as a Procurator Fiscal Depute in the Deaths Unit at COPFS, Glasgow. Her medical interests have continued throughout her professional career with other external appointments to the Scottish Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards, the Royal College of Surgeons and Royal College of Pathologists. She is also a legal member of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.

She has experience in university teaching which she undertakes at the Universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde, Glasgow, and the Open University as a lecturer and tutor in a range of legal subjects at both under and post graduate, and adult access level. The importance of professional education is an aspect that is shared in common with medical training in that legal ethics and regulation are essential for professional practice in both law and medicine.

Gillian is appointed as the non-executive director Whistleblowing champion on the NES Board.  Her appointment term was for four years, from 1^st February 2020 to 31^st January 2024.  She was re-appointed for a further three years and six months from 1 February 2024 – 31 July 2027.