Lord Thring (1818-1907) was educated at Shrewsbury School and Magdalene College, Cambridge. After being called to the Bar he developed an interest in legislative drafting and in 1869 became the first head of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in London. He served as First Parliamentary Counsel from then until his retirement in 1886 and died in 1907. Madeleine MacKenzie was born in Inverness and educated at Inverness High School and the Law School of the University of Aberdeen. Parliamentary Counsel since 1990, first in London and now in Edinburgh, she is a contributor to the 10th edition of Craies on Legislation (2013). David Purdie was educated at Ayr Academy and Glasgow University. He is an Hon. Fellow of Edinburgh University's Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, where his central interests are in the literary and philosophical components of the Scottish Enlightenment.