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Tom Marshall

Tom Marshall is a partner in Thompsons Scotland and the head of advocacy.  In his day to day practice he is a solicitor advocate, working principally on claims for asbestos related disease.  He is also the President of the Society of Solicitor Advocates, which promotes excellence in advocacy and represents the interests of all solicitor advocates in Scotland.

In 2001 he was invited to join Thompsons by Frank Maguire to concentrate on asbestos cases.  Tom has appeared at the Court of Session in many high profile asbestos disease cases, recently winning the highest awards ever made in Scotland to a victim and his family in the case of Elizabeth Wolff v John Moulds (Kilmarnock) Limited.

As well as representing individual clients and their families, Tom is also involved in the campaigning work of the firm, originally spearheaded by Frank, including negotiations with the government following the collapse of Chester Street Insurance, on the drafts of the Rights of Relatives (Mesothelioma) Act, and on the preparation of submissions concerning other proposals for law reform.  Tom was a member of a Scottish Law Commission advisory group relating to the review of the Scots law of damages on wrongful death which culminated in the Damages (Scotland) Act 2011.

Tom is also involved in continuing legal education.  He has trained at advanced advocacy courses with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and is an accredited trainer in advocacy techniques.  He has also conducted conference and seminar sessions for members of the medical profession as well as lawyers and has had articles published on a variety of legal topics.

He qualified as a solicitor in 1984 and has concentrated on civil litigation ever since.  Before joining Thompsons in 2001 he had been the senior litigation partner in the Edinburgh office of a major Scottish law firm from 1988.  His practice included insolvency, professional negligence and property claims as well as personal injury work.  He qualified as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 1993 and as a solicitor advocate with rights of audience in the Court of Session, House of Lords and Privy Council in 1995.  He has exercised those rights regularly ever since in both the Outer and Inner Houses of the Court of Session.

In the early 1990s he was the Secretary of the Eurocopy Complainers’ Advisory Group, set up to advise customers of office equipment suppliers who had become caught up in onerous contracts for the hire and maintenance of photocopiers and to campaign for greater protection for customers entering into unregulated credit agreements.