World Changing Alumni 2021 winner – Fiona McPhail
Published: 8 October 2021
Congratulations to Law alumna Fiona McPhail, who has been voted ‘World Changing Alumni 2021’ by our University of Glasgow alumni community.
Congratulations to Law alumna Fiona McPhail, who has been voted ‘World Changing Alumni 2021’ by our University of Glasgow alumni community. The annual award recognises and celebrates the achievements of alumni who have graduated within the last 15 years and made a major contribution to their field.
Fiona graduated with an LLB in 2007 and is currently the Principal Solicitor at Shelter Scotland. She specialises in Scottish housing and homelessness law and related social justice issues, taking a human rights-based approach to housing law, which recognises the home as much more than a roof over a person’s head.
In 2019, Fiona was a leading member of a team of lawyers that challenged Serco’s lock change evictions through the Sheriff Court, the Sheriff Appeal Court and in the Court of Session. This challenge temporarily protected hundreds of asylum seekers from being evicted from their homes, and the group of law firms collectively won The Herald's Law Award 2019. Fiona continues to be pivotal in pioneering strategic litigation in Scotland in relation to homelessness and housing poverty.
Fiona seeks to use the law as a tool to benefit the poorest in our communities and to defend their right to a home. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fiona’s team at Shelter Scotland has been a vocal advocate for those who have been made homeless or are living in insecure housing. While the enforcement of eviction orders is temporarily suspended and local authorities have provided much of the needed temporary accommodation for those made homeless by the pandemic, Fiona and her team are working to ensure it’s not business as usual when the crisis is over.
Fiona’s work underpins a commitment to equality of opportunity to access legal advice and services to vulnerable members of the community with limited options. With JustRight Scotland she established a free, confidential legal service and training programme called StrEEt Aware in 2017. This service extends to migrant rough sleeping clients, and those individuals and groups that support them, and is a pioneering social justice collaboration between the Shelter Scottish Housing Law Service and JustRight Scotland, and Streetwork Edinburgh.
Fiona’s daily work as a lawyer is to fight on behalf of vulnerable clients for their rights and ensure that policy and legislation is developed and interpreted to avoid discrimination and enhance equality.
- Read the UofG ‘Avenue’ interview with Fiona
- Read about Fiona on the School of Law's '100 Voices for 100 Years' project webpage
First published: 8 October 2021