Our Principal Clerk is Sheila Westwater and we have two Deputy Advocates’ Clerks, Christina Ballantyne and Gavin Herd. Each member of our clerking team has distinctive experience and talents.
They also have a number of things in common. Like our members, they are committed to Westwater Advocates. They are knowledgeable about the strengths of each of our Advocates. They will offer sound advice to help in the selection of a suitable Advocate. In order to offer the best advice, their recommendations will not always be restricted to members of Westwater Advocates if availability or other factors indicate that Counsel from other groups might be a suitable recommendation.
We encourage the agreement of fees in advance. The fees quoted by our members will be competitive for the work involved. Our clerking team will be happy to discuss fee quotations. They will also be happy to discuss, and in consultation with our members, agree timescales for any work.
Sheila Westwater
Sheila, whose name the stable bears, has been the clerk of her own stable since 1991. She has in that time built up a collection of counsel who highly value her efficiency, reliability and unstinting dedication to providing our users with the best possible service.
She has led her team with energy and humour, synchronising the individual talents and qualities of each to produce a team that meets the needs of clients, instructing solicitors, direct access bodies and counsel alike. When the opportunity of devolution arose, the Westwater Stable decided to devolve as a whole, primarily to help ensure the continuity of that service.
Although she is the leader of the team, she is accessible to be approached directly in relation to any matter that may arise in the course of instructing any of our counsel.
Sheila Westwater Clerk
Sheila Westwater
T: 0131 260 5700
Email Sheila
Christina Ballantyne
Christina has devoted her considerable skills and energy to Faculty Services since 1983, when she joined the accounts department to deal with all aspects of fees and accounts. She then spent ten years in the credit control department dealing mainly with the difficult but necessary matter of civil legal aid accounts.
Having had several opportunities to assist some of the other stables in a clerking capacity in the 1990’s, Christina found the job to which she is ideally suited, as Deputy Advocates’ Clerk in the Westwater Stable where she has become an essential part of our clerking team. Christina is always at hand to listen, understand and action.
Christina Ballantyne Deputy Advocates’ Clerk
Christina Ballantyne
T: 0131 260 5641
Email Christina
Gavin Herd
Gavin is one of the few clerks or deputies with a law degree, having graduated with an LL.B. from Edinburgh University in 2001. He then joined the Court Section of the City of Edinburgh Council, assisting their team of solicitors in all areas of court work.
Gavin was welcomed to the Westwater Stable to join Christina as Sheila’s Deputy Advocates’ Clerk in early 2002, since when he has worked tirelessly, helping to make the team as efficient and user-friendly as it is today. Gavin’s computer skills and sense of humour are only two of the many qualities he brings to the service ethos of the stable.
Gavin Herd Deputy Advocates’ Clerk
Gavin Herd
T: 0131 260 5828
Email Gavin