Terra Firma Chambers' David Parratt has been appointed Director of Training and Education at the Faculty of Advocates, taking over from John Hamilton QC who has held the post since 2009. He assumes responsibility for the Faculty's training programmes for new and existing members and will carry out these duties while maintaining his own practice at the Bar.

He is a graduate of the Universities of Aberdeen (LL.B (Hons)) and Edinburgh (Ph.D). In his 13 years as an advocate, David Parratt has developed a civil practice, specialising in contract, commercial and trust law. He was appointed an ad hoc Advocate-Depute in 2011. He is a member of Terra Firma Chambers.

He is also called to the English Bar (Lincoln’s Inn, 2009) and maintains chambers in Temple, London through which he has been involved in international arbitrations in the Gulf, Middle and Far East. He has rights of audience before the courts of the Dubai International Finance Center.

He is a CEDR Accredited Mediator, Chartered Arbitrator and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has been appointed to various institutional arbitral appointment panels in Cairo, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Geneva, Dubai, Qatar, Washington, London and Edinburgh. He is the co-author of The Scottish Arbitration Handbook (Avizandum Publishing, 2011) (with Mr. Peter Foreman). He enjoys lecturing and is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in International Arbitration in the School of Law, University of Dundee and he is also Visiting Senior Lecturer in Construction Law and International Arbitration in the British University in Dubai (BUiD).

He has been involved in teaching school pupils about the law and the role of advocates in the Faculty's Mini-Trial initiative and the Citizenship Foundation's Mock Trial competition of which the Faculty is one of the main sponsors.

He has been an instructor on the Faculty's skills course since 2003 and is one of a group of senior instructors who have been looking at the way forward for advocacy training.
The Faculty began to offer skills training to members and “devils” - as prospective advocates under training are termed - in 1994, after conducting extensive research in England, Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada.

The programme, particularly for devils has developed extensively and continues to evolve. It is now recognised as one of the best in the world. It combines teaching courses, assessment and practical work with an experienced advocate.

Members of Faculty have regularly travelled to the United States, Australia, South Africa, England and Ireland to take part in advocacy training events, while the Faculty has welcomed leading advocacy instructors from those countries to Scotland.

As part of their training, which lasts about nine months, and is unpaid, devils will take part in the provision of pro bono legal services to accredited advice agencies through the Faculty’s Free Legal Services Unit.

The Faculty currently has 454 practising members and 21 devils are due to start the Foundation Course, the first part of the intensive training process, in October.