Janys M Scott KC is ranked as a star individual in Chambers Directory 2026, family:children and in family:matrimonial finance. She is described as “an outstanding silk who is recognised for her roles in leading cases.” Janys is also ranked in administrative and public law and in relation to civil liberties and human rights, where she is particularly recognised as outstanding in the combination of public law and children’s law. She regularly appears in the Inner House and Outer House of the Court of Session, and has made successful appeals to the Supreme Court. Her remit spans high-value financial provision in addition to complex child law cases and cases relating to human rights and rights of the child. Janys has been described as “the gold standard of advocacy”, “set on a different level by her knowledge of the law”.
Janys was featured in The Times Newspaper as “Lawyer of the Week” on 2 August 2012, following victory in the Supreme Court for Jessamine Gow, who was claiming financial provision after the breakdown of a cohabiting relationship. She was the Scottish Legal News “Lawyer of the Month” in May 2021 when she successfully challenged the Scottish Government’s closure of churches during covid.
She is accredited as an arbitrator by the Family Law Arbitration Group Scotland (FLAGS) and a member of the Faculty of Advocates Dispute Resolution Service.
As well as family law, Janys M Scott KC is a recognised expert in education law. She is the author of “Education Law in Scotland” the second edition of which was published in 2016.
Appointments
Originally qualified and practicing as a solicitor in England, Janys saw the light and came to Scotland in 1986. She worked as a Scottish solicitor before entering the Scottish bar in 1992. She has served as Convenor of the Scottish Child Law Centre (1992 – 1997), Stepfamily Scotland (1998 – 2002) and the Scottish Legal Group of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (2004 – 2010). She was part of the Scottish Executive’s Adoption Policy Review Group, which reported in 2005. In 2005 Janys was appointed a part-time sheriff. She took silk in 2007.
Janys was Chair of the Advocates’ Family Law Association from 2013 to June 2018. She was President of the Part-Time Sheriffs’ Association from 2018 to 2022 and is UK delegate to Family and Succession Committee of CCBE. She chairs the Board of Trustees of the Association for Fostering Kinship and Adoption Scotland and was until June 2025 the chair of the board of trustees of the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship in the UK. In 2017-2018 she served as an expert panel member for the Strategic Review of Legal Aid. Janys was Director of Westwater Advocates and a Director of Faculty Services Limited from 2019 to 2023.
Cases
Janys appeared as junior in the House of Lords Sanderson v McManus [1997] 1 FLR 980, 1997 SC (HL) 55 and the Privy Council (Anderson v Scottish Ministers (2003) AC 602, 2002 SC (PC) 63). She has been instructed as a senior in seven Supreme Court cases:
- Principal Reporter v K (2010) UKSC 56
- Gow v Grant (2012) UKSC 29
- Re EV (A Child) (2017) UKSC 15
- McDonald v McDonald (2017) UKSC 52
- SSWP v MM (2019) UKSC 34
- In the Matter of XY(2020) UKSC26
- Re T (2021) UKSC 35 (written intervention)
Recent cases include:
- Philip v Scottish Ministers [2021] CSOH 32 and 52 (successful judicial review challenging regulations requiring Covid closure of churches)
- A v B [2021] CSIH 52, 2021 SLT 1569 (successful reclaiming motion against dismissal of claim for return of child granted asylum)
- City of Wolverhampton Council v Lord Advocate [2021] CSIH 69, 2022 SLT 1 (intervention by Commissioner for Children and Young People Scotland in application to nobile officium re deprivation of liberty)
- A v B [2022] CSOH 38, 2022 Fam LR 74 (application by parent for return to Qatar of child who had been granted asylum)
- Macdonald v Macdonald [2022] CSOH 84, 2023 Fam LR 2 (complex high value claim for financial provision)
- AD v SD [2023] CSIH 17, 2023 SLT 439 (successful appeal against Hague Convention return order, on grounds of grave risk)
- Foster v Foster [2023] CSIH 35, 2023 Fam LR 128 (successful reclaiming motion against Lord Ordinary’s refusal to order husband to ‘purchase’ wife’s shares)
- Foster v Foster (No 2) [2023] CSIH 44 (claim for expenses)
- W v W [2023] CSOH 72, 2023 Fam LR 138 (successful resistance to relocation order)
- TH v VH [2023] SAC (Civ) 31 (successful resistance to appeal against sheriff’s orders for financial provision).
- JL, Petitioner [2024] CSOH 24, 2024 Fam LR 26 (acting for mother with mental health issues resisting return of children under Hague 1980 Convention)
- Omarova v Mackay [2024] CSOH 61, 2024 Fam LR 106 (financial provision, significant overseas assets)
- PM Petitioner [2024] SC EDIN 29, 2024 SLT (Sh Ct) 33 (parental order for father and deceased mother)
- B’s Legal Representative v NHS Grampian [2024] CSOH 72, 2024 SLT 1107 (claim for just satisfaction for interference with family life)
- FPS v SM [2024] CSIH 20, 2025 SC 61 (relationship of Hague 1996 Parental Responsibilities Convention and 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention)
- SN v JN [2024] CSIH 33, 2024, SLT 1153 (justiciability and effect of rape allegation in relation to child contact)
- Glasgow City Council v MM [2025] CSIH 3, 2025 SC 197 (competence of permanence order for child over 16)
- Corsan v Corsan [2025] CSOH 24, 2025, Fam LR 36 (financial provision, farming divorce)
- Hodge v Hodge [2025] CSOH 31, 2025 Fam LR 45 (financial provision on divorce, sale of farm owned by partnership operated by wife and sequestrated husband)
- A v Principal Reporter [2025] CSIH 9, 2025 SLT 537 (successful appeal against rapist father being treated as “relevant person”)
- Locality Reporter v O [2025] CSIH 15, 2025 SLT 684 (reporter’s appeal against transfer of jurisdiction to Italy under EU rules)
- AB Petitioners [2025] CSOH 87, 2025 SLT 1139 (decision allowing a separated couple to adopt a child)
- UV v SCRA [2025] CSIH 19, 2025 SLT 946 (challenge to findings of sheriff who had used her mobile phone during evidence)
- JS v SN [2025] CSOH 72 (variation of contact arrangements between father whose behaviour had been abusive and mother with complex PTSD)
- Petition for authority to adopt EO [2025] CSIH 25 (challenge to “limping” international adoption)
Publications
- Education Law in Scotland, Thomson/W Green 2nd Edition (2016);
- The Laws of Scotland, Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia (Education section), LexisNexis (2010);
- Law Making and the Scottish Parliament, The Early Years, Sutherland, (chapter on Education), Edinburgh University Press (2011);
- Scottish Education, 5th Edition, (chapter on Education and the Law), Edinburgh University Press (2018);
- Scottish Human Rights Service (Family and Education sections), W Green/Sweet & Maxwell;
- Scottish Family Law Service (formerly Parental Responsibilities and Rights and Adoption sections, now Education section), Lexis Nexis;
- Court of Session Practice (Family section), Bloomsbury;
- Editor of Family Law Reports, W Green
Various articles including:
- Opinion for the Children’s Rights Strategic Litigation Working Group on Equal Protection on “The Legality of Scots Law on the Physical Punishment of Children” (2017)
- “Fair enough?” 2020 FLA Bulletin (relating to financial provision on divorce),
- “Child-friendly justice” 2022 STEP Journal.
- Opinion on “Unlocking Support: age disputed young people in Scotland” for JustRight Scotland (2024)
- “Looking back for the Way Ahead” Insights article for Brodies LLP (2025).
Further Information
Worked as lecturer in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq 1976 – 78. As Honorary Lecturer Dundee University 1989 – 1994 set up, taught and examined Law Module of Certificate in Child Protection Studies. Visiting Bye-Fellow Newnham College, Cambridge, April – September 2002. Chairman of trust ‘Friends of Petra School’, supporting education in Zimbabwe 2009 – 2020. Decisions and determinations as a part-time sheriff are available on the Scottish Courts website (http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/).
Mobile: 07967 371 460
Email: Janys M Scott KC
Year of call: 1992
Year of silk: 2007
