WHETHER he's splashing through the rapids in a canoe on the River Findhorn or practising law behind his desk in Inverness, the environment is seldom far from Jamie Whittle's thoughts.
Conservation is a theme that has run through Whittle's life, from his childhood growing up in the Highlands to his decision to combine his legal studies with a degree in human ecology.
And the environment is at the heart of his first book, White
River, which charts Whittle's journey to the source of the River Findhorn, along with his return trip, in a canoe.
"Although still a young man, Jamie Whittle has already quartered the globe and packed in the experience of two lifetimes," says Alastair McIntosh, visiting professor at the Centre for Human Ecology (CHE), in his introduction to Whittle's book.
That experience is no more obvious than in his studies. Whittle was born in Inverness and grew up in the village of Findhorn, in Moray. He attended the local Logie Primary School and Bairmore School in Aberdeenshire before venturing south to Sedbergh School in the Yorkshire Dales. He excelled at modern languages and was awarded a John Motley Morehead scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where his studies of foreign tongues continued.
On his return to the UK, Whittle was faced with a choice as how best to further his interest in the natural world.
"I knew I wanted to do something in relation to conservation and environmental issues and the idea of trying to do environmental law came together," says Whittle, who is now 34. "At the time, Edinburgh was teaching environmental law but I felt the way it was taught didn't address any of the really key substantive issues to do with the environment that, as an environmental lawyer, you really need to understand.
"So I also did a simultaneous masters degree in human ecology through (what was then] the Open University CHE. That was the platform for what became White River."
The CHE has since become part of Strathclyde University while Whittle's masters dissertation became the basis for his book.
"When you're at law school you basically get about five or six months holiday a year so I used my holiday time from law school to write all my papers, and lectures at the CHE were at weekends," he explains. "It was a time when I really wanted to focus on learning, and the subject matter of human ecology was fascinating and quite natural to read – it's not difficult to pick up a book about the wilderness late at night – it was much more palatable to me than reading a book on contract law."
During his law degree, Whittle spent a summer in Geneva at the Centre for International Environmental Law, a US law firm, which dealt with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including the United Nations' environment programme. After completing his accelerated law degree and masters course, he went on to spend two years with Maclay Murray & Spens.
"I trained with MMS in Glasgow and Edinburgh, which was principally a commercial training. It might seem slightly polarised from the world of environmental law but it gave me a really good grounding and exposure to the legal world and, often as an environmental lawyer, you're dealing with big companies on the other side and it helps to understand the mindset of those entities and their legal representatives."
It was after his traineeship with MMS that Whittle reached another crossroads: seeing there weren't many opportunities to practise the kind of environmental law that he had in mind, he took time out to train as a ski and outdoors instructor.
But the law didn't lose its draw for Whittle, who jumped at the chance to return to Inverness. "I knew really strongly that I wanted to return to the Highlands, where I grew up," he says. "The opportunity came to join R&R Urquhart just over three years ago and, at the time, they were looking for a couple of assistants and it was done on the understanding that I could develop my own environmental law practice.
"A lot of the work we do is private client work but I've been involved in a real spectrum of things from renewable energy issues to nature conservation, and from flood alleviation to nuclear waste issues."
R&R Urquhart was founded in Forres in 1829. It merged with Macgregor & Co in 1992 and became a limited liability partnership (LLP) in 2005 when it joined forces with James Stewart & Co.
The firm now has 50 members of staff working across its offices in Forres, Inverness and Nairn.
And working at the firm has brought Whittle back into close contact with his father, Colin, who is the firm's senior partner. "He tends to be based in our Forres office and I tend to be based in Inverness but we work closely on a lot of client-related matters and I love it," says the younger Whittle. "He's an outstanding lawyer and he's a great mentor, someone to learn from."
Whittle says some of his most interesting cases have come via the Environmental Law Foundation in London, which lists Whittle as one of its referral solicitors. By carrying out low-cost pro bono work for the foundation. he has been involved in cases relating to the decommissioning of the nuclear reprocessing facility at Dounreay and Donald Trump's plan to build a golf resort on the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire.
His other recent high-profile case has involved acting for one of the objectors to the Beauly-to-Denny power line, who wants to see the cables buried. Though environmental law may seem like the preserve of the central belt, Whittle believes it is a natural area into which rural firms can move.
"I get involved with a lot of agriculture law as well as there's quite a crossover between that and the environment," he says. "In many ways, it's really land law – you're dealing with farming, some development and a lot of environmental planning work.
"I think there's a myth that the only interesting legal work is based in the central belt but I don't think that's the case at all. The range of work that comes across our desks is staggering. The nice thing is you never know what's going to happen during the day."
• White River, by Jamie Whittle, is published by Sandstone Press, priced £9.99. All royalties from the book will fund conservation work in the River Findhorn watershed.
The full article contains 1092 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
