About
No doubts. Appearing before judges and in criminal courts every working day of life is a tough old school. Ron Mackenna spent more than a decade doing just that, conducting jury trials and summary trials, appearing for pleas and in procedural hearings before deciding it was time to create his own firm. Of course, friends asked if it was the right time. Are you sure? Legal Aid rates are static, prosecutions are falling, and the best defences in road traffic law are being squeezed all the time. There’s also a drive to make criminal law firms bigger. Is there room for a small specialist firm focussing on criminal law and road traffic law? Of course, there is. You stick to what you are good at. Offer a personalised, professional service. Does it sound glamorous? Hang on. The final decision was taken with some friends over a plate of Thursday Canteen Curry at Glasgow Sheriff Court. On the ninth of February 2016 Ron Mackenna Defence Lawyers Ltd was created.
The office would be where Ron has worked for the past five years, a place the clients know, on the fourth floor at 19 Waterloo Street, Glasgow. It’s right in the heart of the city, just over the river from the courts. Criminal law would be the specialism. All criminal law. Whatever kind of cases come along: from murders to breach of the peace, by way of domestic cases, football matters, you name it we will do it. Pretty much business as it has been the last decade. The only other specialism apart from crime will be road traffic law. Ron Mackenna has been the road traffic specialist at Glasgow Defence Lawyers, at McGovern and Mackenna and others. He has won many, many cases even given talks on road traffic law to judges in the JP courts. Road traffic may not seem to have all the pressure of High Court cases, or the intensity of standing up to do a speech at a sheriff and jury trial but driving licences matter to people. The number of road traffic prosecutions has soared. Everybody is affected. And traffic law has become one of them most specialised and technical areas of law there is. It’s also, believe it or not, interesting and enjoyable. Folks deserve the best quality defence, whether that’s for a domestic case, the most serious High Court matters or simply if they have been accused of using a mobile phone. That’s what Ron Mackenna Defence Lawyers wants to deliver.
Need to know a bit more? Before turning that law degree that had been burning a hole in his pocket into a career Ron Mackenna was an award winning journalist. A news reporter for most of his career. His last position before becoming a lawyer was Chief Reporter of the Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. Before that he had been Political Editor of the Scottish Daily Record, responsible for teams of reporters at the Scottish Parliament and Westminster. Going back?Political Editor of the Scottish Daily Mirror; senior reporter for some years at The Herald where he received a commendation in the Scottish Press Awards in the prestigious Reporter of the Year category. His career also included a long spell as a reporter on the Glasgow Evening Times a five edition a day newspaper back in the 90s and a whirling high pressure joy to work for, and his carrer started at the Press & Journal newspaper.
He has written and had published two books. And has also written newspaper columns for The Daily Express, The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Post, The Mail on Sunday, The Firm Magazine and still writes columns for The Herald. News management is something he appreciates fully the working of and he always keeps his clients privacy to the forefront.
