Scott Wortley was educated at Annan Academy and the University of Edinburgh graduating LLB (Honours) in 1994. He qualified as a solicitor in 1997 completing a traineeship at Messrs Ketchen and Stevens, WS. Thereafter he was employed at the Scottish Law Commission and worked as senior legal assistant on the Scottish Law Commission projects on feudal abolition (culminating in the Report on Abolition of the Feudal System which was implemented by the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc (Scotland) Act 2000) and Real Burdens. He was heavily involved in the research for the Discussion Paper on Real Burdens, and the subsequent Report on Real Burdens - having a consultancy role on the latter project following his departure from Scottish Law Commission staff.

From 2000 - 2005 he was a lecturer at the University of Strathclyde.

In 2002 - 3 he was adviser to the Justice 1 committee of the Scottish parliament on the Title Conditions (Scotland) Bill assisting in the preparation of the Stage 1 report and amendments submitted by committee members during Stage 2 of the parliamentary process.  The bill, based on the Scottish Law Commission work on real burdens, was enacted as the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003.

During 2005 he was a consultant to the Scottish Executive in its work on the reform of diligence (enforcement of decrees) against land.  This project culminated in the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc (Scotland) Act 2007.

He has a particular research interest in the law of real burdens and has published widely on the area - including substantial treatments in the seventh edition of Professor McDonald's Conveyancing Manual, and articles in a number of journals.  He has also delivered numerous continuing professional development seminars on various aspects of the law of real burdens around Scotland.  His collaborative work on the topic with Dr Andrew Steven has been relied on in the Lands Tribunal for Scotland (see, eg, At.home Nationwide Ltd v Morris).  An article which contains the first substantial examination of the law of personal bar and real burdens since the implementation of the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 will be published in 2008 in a collection edited by Professor Robert Rennie of the University of Glasgow to be published by W Green.

He researches in other areas of property law and conveyancing and has a particular interest in comparative aspects of property law especially relating to other mixed legal systems, having published: on co-ownership with Professor Duard Kleyn from the University of Pretoria in R Zimmermann, D Visser and K Reid (eds), Mixed Legal Systems in Comparative Perspective: Property and Obligations in Scotland and South Africa (2004); and on rules regulating double transfers.  With Professor David Carey Miller of the University of Aberdeen, Malcolm Combe of Tods Murray LLP and Dr Andrew Steven, he has recently submitted the Scottish Report on 'Transfer of Moveables" for the Study Group on a European Civil Code, having responsibility for, among other elements, work on the commercial aspects of the topic including retention of title and the treatment of property in insolvency processes.

He contributes to the Scots Law News blog, edited by Professor Hector MacQueen.

Scott's substantial research project at the moment is collaborating with Professor William M Gordon, Douglas Professor of Civil Law Emeritus in the University of Glasgow, on the third edition of Professor Gordon's Scottish Land Law in the Scottish Universities Law Institute series.

Scott also has research interests in the law of debt and debt enforcement with particular interests in insolvency processes, rights in security and the enforcement of judgments.  He has carried out consultancy work for the Scottish Executive on the topic, participated in research for the Scottish Executive Central Research Unit on business finance and security over moveable property (in a project led by Professor Jenny Hamilton from the University of Strathclyde), and teaches on these subjects at Masters and Honours level.  A new Masters course on the law relating to these areas is being established in 2008-9.

Scott currently supervises one PhD student on the topic of possession.  He welcomes expressions of interest in postgraduate research in the areas of property and commercial law, particularly on the topics of obligations encumbering land, and the law relating to insolvency processes, rights in security, debt and debt enforcement.

Scott is a member of the Law Society of Scotland Conveyancing Committee and the Joint Consultative Committee between the Registers of Scotland and Law Society of Scotland.  He is currently an external examiner in the law school at Glasgow Caledonian University and has previously been an external examiner at the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh.