General Council 'In Conversation' event - 7 October 2025

As part of the Public Affairs Standing Committee programme on ‘Town and Gown’, the Business Committee arranged for two distinguished alumni, Rt Hon Lord (Jim) Wallace of Tankerness KC and Ms Joanna Cherry KC, to take part in a 'Then and Now' conversation reflecting on how the university/student environment has evolved for better or worse since they were at Edinburgh University.

Both alumni rose to prominence as members of different political parties at Westminster and, in the case of Lord Wallace, later at Holyrood. This event was an opportunity to hear their views on whether things were indeed 'better' for students when they were at university in the 1970s and 80s and, if so, how might we restore what was ‘better’, recognising both the opportunities and challenges facing the Higher Education sector today. There was an opportunity to ask questions relevant to the theme of the discussion, chaired by the Rector, Simon Fanshawe.

A recording of the event can be viewed at the bottom of this page.

Biographies of Speakers

Joanna Cherry KC

Joanna graduated LLB (First Class) Hons in 1988.  She qualified as a solicitor in 1992 and 1995 she was called to the Scottish bar, where took silk in 2009. From 2003-2008 she served as Standing Junior Counsel to the Scottish Government and from 2008-2011 she served as Crown Counsel and was one of the first specialist sex crimes prosecutors in Scotland’s pioneering National Sex Crimes Unit. She is an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple.

Joanna served as the Member of Parliament for Edinburgh South West from 2015-2024. She was the SNP’s Spokesperson on Justice and Home Affairs from 2015-2021.  Thereafter she served as the Chair of Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights from 2022-2024.

In 2019 she led the successful ‘Cherry Case’ against Boris Johnson’s unlawful prorogation of the UK Parliament.

In 2019 she won the Herald newspaper award for the Best Scot at Westminster and, in 2021 she won the same award from Holyrood magazine.

She is the co-author of the textbook Mental Health and Scots Law in Practice (2014) and contributed a chapter to the Sunday Times bestselling anthology, The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht (Constable, 2024).  She is also a regular contributor to the New Statesman and the Spectator. Joanna is currently working on a memoir of the last ten years in Scottish politics.

Rt. Hon. Lord (Jim) Wallace of Tankerness PC KC FRSE

Lord Wallace of Tankerness (Jim Wallace) was born in Annan, Dumfriesshire in August 1954 and was educated at Annan Academy, Downing College Cambridge, and Edinburgh University (LL.B 1977)

He is the former MP for Orkney & Shetland (1983-2001), and MSP for Orkney (1999-2007). As Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader, he was Deputy First Minister of Scotland 1999-2005. During the illness, and subsequently the death of Donald Dewar in 2000, he was Acting First Minister, and again, in 2001, following the resignation of Henry McLeish. He was Minister for Justice 1999-2003 and Minister for Enterprise & Lifelong Learning from 2003-2005. 

Jim became a Liberal Democrat Peer in 2007 and was appointed Advocate General for Scotland in the UK Coalition Government.  He led the Lib Dem Peers from 2013 to 2016 and was Deputy Leader of the House of Lords from 2013 to 2015.  

He is a Privy Councillor, King’s Counsel and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, He holds honorary degrees from Edinburgh University, the Open University and Heriot Watt University 

He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2021-22; only the second elder in modern times to become Moderator. 

Married to Rosie, he lives between Orkney and Bridge of Allan. Jim is a father and grandfather.