ALAN PATERSON graduated in law at Edinburgh University in 1969. He started his research at the House of Lords while a postgraduate student at Oxford University and was a research associate at the Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies from 1972 to 1973. After qualifiying as a solicitor he was awarded his doctorate in 1977. He has been a lecturer at Edinburgh University and is currently a lecturer at Strathclyde University. He has written extensively on the British judiciary and on the provision of legal services in the United Kingdom.