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Professor Laura Macgregor

Professor Laura Macgregor profile picture

Chair of Scots Law

College Promotions Representative; Head of Subject Area: Private Law

LLB, LLM, DipLP

Office hours:

Thursday 10:00-11:00

Tel: +44 (0)131 650 2034

Email: l.macgregor@ed.ac.uk

View my publications

Laura Macgregor holds the Chair of Scots Law, her appointment to this Chair beginning on 1 July 2020. She is the first woman since the Chair's inception 297 years ago to hold the Chair. Before becoming an academic Laura spent several years as a solicitor in practice with a major Scottish law firm in Edinburgh. She began her academic career as a lecturer at Glasgow Law School, joining Edinburgh Law School in 2002. She is a panel member of REF Sub-Panel 18.

Ph.D. supervision interests

She welcomes PhD enquiries which relate generally to her fields of interest. In particular she would be interested in supervising research into agency law, partnership law or contract law within Europe.

Research Interests

Laura's interests lie in the field of commercial law, specifically contract law, agency law and partnership law.  Her research considers Scots law in its comparative context, both European and global. She is also interested in legal history.

She is the author of the leading monograph, Agency Law in Scotland, (ISBN 9780414018051), published in the prestigious Scottish Universities Law Institute Series. 

Currently working on a project on the law of partnership, her most recent article on this topic is 'Partnerships and Legal Personality: A Cautionary Tale From Scotland' (2020) 20 Journal of Corporate Law Studies in 237. 

Research Groups

Laura is a member of the Edinburgh Centre for Commercial Law. This is a research centre which aims to build stronger links between academia and the various parts of the legal community in Scotland. The blog for the Centre can be found here: http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ecclblog/.

Collaborative Activity

Laura has edited a number of collaborative projects in the field of European private law. Her most recent project, edited with Jaap Baaij and David Cabrelli, focussed on the law of interpretation. It has now been published as Jaap Baaij, David Cabrelli and Laura Macgregor (eds), Interpretation of Commercial Contracts in European Private Law, Intersentia, 2020. This volume was published under the auspices of the Common Core of European Private Law. 

Laura retains strong links with the legal profession and is heavily involved in the provision of CPD training to Scottish law firms. She has designed and delivered training on the law of contract to Scottish Sheriffs through the Judicial Institute. Her annual CPD course, Contract Law Update, delivered under the auspices of Edinburgh Law Seminars, takes place each year in May. The course is delivered in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and online to the Highlands and Islands.