Murdo Macleod QC is a leading practitioner in regulatory crime, where he is instructed for trials and in an advisory capacity. He is ranked as a "Star Individual" for Health and Safety in the Chambers UK Bar Guide.
He has acted for major clients in the oil & gas, construction, healthcare, rail and aviation sectors. He has also been instructed by numerous organisations, including: Police Scotland, the Scottish Prison Service, the NHS, the Care Inspectorate and various local authorities and health boards.
He has served as Crown Counsel and Senior Crown Counsel and, as junior counsel, represented the second accused, Lamin Fhimah, in the Pan-Am/Lockerbie bombing trial in the Netherlands. Other notable acquittals include Andy Coulson in his trial for perjury and Yousif Badri, a Doctor charged with terrorism offences. In 2021 he defended the Chief Constable of Police Scotland in a landmark High Court prosecution following a missed '999' call.
He has appeared in many significant statutory public inquiries and fatal accident inquiries, such as: the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry, the Superpuma Inquiry, the Queensferry Crossing Inquiry and the Billy Wright Inquiry in Northern Ireland (as Counsel to the Inquiry between 2005 and 2010). He is currently instructed in the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry, the Undercover Policing Inquiry, the Covid inquiry and the Sheku Bayoh Inquiry.
He has a long-standing interest in public international law and, on the recommendation of the Dean of Faculty, was appointed to the list of approved counsel for the ICTY in 1997 and to the list of approved counsel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague in 2010. He has advised Police Scotland on various aspects of international criminal law.
He is a practising barrister in England and Wales (Temple Garden Chambers), and sits as a part-time sheriff. In 2012 he was appointed UK delegate to the Criminal Law Committee of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE). He is a chair of the Faculty's complaints committee and Presenting Officer for the Fitness for Judicial Office tribunal.