Rhona Scullion

Rhona joined chambers in October 2020 and is currently undertaking a mixed family and general common law pupillage supervised by Kirstin Beswick.

Prior to coming to the Bar, Rhona worked most recently as a prison law adviser representing prisoners across England and Wales at parole hearings and adjudications. This provided her with a thorough grounding in all aspects of prison law with particular expertise in representing indeterminate sentence prisoners and vulnerable prisoners with mental health issues. Her prison law knowledge is complemented in this regard by her experience of volunteering as a DoLS Relevant Person’s Representative. 

Rhona has had a long-time interest in human rights and, in 2017, received the Peter Duffy Human Rights Award which allowed her to spend three months working within the Research Division at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. She has written on various human rights matters as a freelance journalist and, whilst at law school, was part of a pro bono organisation which raised awareness of the law on FGM. She continues to work as a freelance journalist when time allows; her work can be viewed here.

Originally graduating from the University of St Andrews in 2013, she then spent several years travelling and working abroad, the highlights of which included working in Hong Kong and Peru, as well as attending the UN Conference on the Status of Women 2015 in New York as a freelance journalist. Upon return to the UK, she studied the Graduate Diploma in Law, graduating top of her class and, the following year, passed the Bar Professional Training Course, both at Nottingham Law School.

Education

Nottingham Law School; Bar Professional Training Course; Very Competent

Nottingham Law School; Graduate Diploma in Law; Distinction (highest aggregate mark in the year)

University of St Andrews: MA Joint Hons English and Modern History; 2:1

Scholarships and Awards

Peter Duffy Human Rights Award 2017

Lord Denning Scholarship 2016

Nottingham Law School Prize for Best GDL Student 2016

Memberships

The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn

Away from the Bar

In her spare time, Rhona loves to travel and to experiment – to varying degrees of success – with vegan cooking and different forms of yoga.