Career
A combination of high-profile controversies, acute legal skills and a well-cultivated image has generated Findlay a lot of coverage in the Scottish press in recent years and he now has one of the highest legal profiles in Scotland and widely considered to be Scotland's premier criminal law advocate. He took silk, becoming a Queen's Counsel in 1988, but his behaviour has been censured by the Faculty of Advocates on more than one occasion (see below). He has served as a defence lawyer in many high-profile murder cases including Jodi Jones, Mark Scott and the Kriss Donald murder trials. He represented Peter Tobin, the murderer of Angelika Kluk in the so-called "body in the church" case. Findlay is a member of the Mackinnon stables.
At present, he is also a noted after-dinner speaker and in 1997 was a high profile campaigner on behalf of the unsuccessful Think Twice campaign which supported a double-no vote in the Scottish devolution referendum.
In 2006 he was a defence counsel in the trial of Mohammed Atif Siddique, which saw the youth sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for collecting and sharing online information about terrorists. Donald Findlay successfully appealed this conviction in January 2010. In April 2010 following an eight week trial he secured the acquittal of the English solicitor Marshall Ronald in the infamous Da Vinci recovery trial.
Glasgow based newspaper Daily Record reported that Donald Findlay was one of the highest paid lawyers in 2007, earning £350,000 from his high profile cases.
In June 2010 Findlay was elected chairman of the Faculty of Advocates Criminal Bar Association.
He also owned a Rangers supporter's bar in Singapore named " The Sportsman" later sold in 2011 but may still have some shares in the company, where his photo still hangs on the wall warning customers that no credit is given.
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