The Rural Conference at Scots Law 2025

Murrayfield Stadium is the venue for the next event in our Scots Law Conference Series, exclusively available to delegates in person on the day.

Topics covered will range from agricultural support payments, resolving disputes in the rural sector and the latest developments in agricultural tenancies to immigration and the rural economy, APR and BPR for farming clients and our annual caselaw and crofting round-ups.

Chaired by Hamish Lean of Shepherd & Wedderburn, our annual conference will include presentations by Jonnie Hall from NFU Scotland, Brian Inkster of Inksters, Robert Sutherland from Terra Firma Chambers, Stephanie Hepburn & Petra Grunenberg of Shepherd & Wedderburn and Jamie Kerr from Burness Paull.

What's being covered?

Agricultural tenancy update

With reform in the offing, Hamish will provide delegates with a comprehensive update of the most important developments in agricultural tenancies.

Hamish Lean, Shepherd & Wedderburn

Agricultural support payments

Jonnie Hall, NFU Scotland

Rural case law review

A review of key recent cases concerning, amongst other matters, agricultural tenancies, rural litigation practice and procedure, conveyancing, servitudes, the Electronic Communications Code, and other cases of likely interest to the rural law practitioner.  The review will consider not only the outcome of these decisions, but what effects they may have and what lessons can be learnt from them.

Robert Sutherland, Terra Firma Chambers

APR and BPR for farming clients

Petra Grunenberg, Shepherd & Wedderburn

Crofting Law in 2025

In this session we will look at recent crofting caselaw and its likely impact on your advice.  We will also consider the latest position in relation to crofting law reform.

Brian Inkster, Inksters

Resolving disputes in the rural Sector – ADR and the role of the solicitor

In this session, we will look at the increasing use of alternative dispute resolution in resolving disputes in the rural sector, with a focus on the role of the solicitor in these.

Stephanie Hepburn, Shepherd & Wedderburn

Immigration & the rural economy

In this session Jamie will look at how immigration law is relevant to the rural economy. He will provide an overview of the UK visa routes available to rural and agricultural businesses who struggle to meet skilled and unskilled labour needs from the resident labour market. He will highlight some of the challenges of specialist sector-based and seasonal worker schemes, as well as touching on family migration rules as applicable to rural communities.

Jamie Kerr, Burness Paull