Aamer Anwar

PARTNER
MA (Hons), DipRCR, LLB, Dip LP, NP

Aamer founded our award winning criminal law firm in 2007.

Brought up in Liverpool, Aamer came to Scotland in 1986 to study mechanical engineering at Glasgow University. He graduated from Social Sciences with an MA (Hons) in 1994. From 1992-94 he was the Scottish organiser for the Anti-Nazi League and in the years since has been a prominent member of the Scottish Campaign against Criminalising of Communities and the Stop the War Coalition.

In 1995 he made legal history in a successful civil action against the Police for a racist attack on himself in 1991 whilst a student at Glasgow University, when he was told ‘this is what happens to black boys with big mouths’ as his teeth were smashed out. He went to study law at Strathclyde University School of Law. In 2017 he became the Rector of the University of Glasgow.

For over three decades Aamer has been a tireless advocate of civil liberties, with a career dedicated to defending the human rights of the vulnerable. Instructed in some of Scotland’s highest profile cases. Aamer has built a reputation for securing acquittals against the odds and his experience and judgement repeatedly stands out from his peers.

A master strategist, he combines his undoubted legal skills with a high degree of client care. Providing a top quality service, he has built up a team of hard working excellent lawyers to support him.

Aamer is best known for campaigning for justice for murdered waiter Surjit Singh Chhokar which led two judicial inquiries, a change in the law and an unrelenting 17 year campaign which finally helped secure a conviction in October 2016.

He acted in the trial and successful appeal of Scotland’s first Islamist terrorism case HMA-v-Siddique and the ‘Ice Cream Wars’ appeal Campbell & Steele- v- HMA. Most recently he was instructed by the relatives of deceased Al-Megrahi and British relatives in the ‘Lockerbie Bomber Appeal’.

In 2016 he won ‘Solicitor of the Year’ in the Herald’s Law Awards of Scotland 2016, followed by the Lawyer of the Year in 2017 at the Legal Awards of Scotland. At the Lloyds TSB Jewel Awards, he received the Professional Excellence Award as a ‘recognition of his outstanding achievements and the huge impact his work has had UK wide’.

Aamer is a regular and respected commentator on the news as well as writing on a wide range of issues including criminal law, civil liberties and terrorism. He is also a member of the campaigning advocacy body INQUEST which deals with deaths in custody. A member of the International Bar Association, Aamer is also Notary Public registered at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He can speak three different languages being fluent in English, Urdu and Punjabi.

Building a fearsome reputation in criminal law and cutting edge civil liberties, the best description of Aamer Anwar was given by a Ex-prisoner of Guantanamo as- ‘In times of fear, hatred and violence it is often very difficult to find people with the courage and fortitude to fight for the rights of the demonised, down-trodden and marginalised but Aamer Anwar, is one of those people, an avid defender of others rights..’