Current Rules Rewrite Committee Members
Chair
Lord President and Lord Justice General
The Right Hon Lord Pentland (Paul Cullen)
Lord Pentland was appointed Lord President and Lord Justice General in February 2025.
Lord Pentland was appointed as a Senator of the College of Justice in November 2008. Between 2014 and 2018 he was chairman (part-time) of the Scottish Law Commission. He was elevated to the Inner House in July 2020.
He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1982 and became a Queen’s Counsel in 1995. He served as an advocate depute between 1991 and 1994.
In 1995, he was appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland and held this office until the general election in 1997. He then returned to practice at the Bar, specialising in commercial and public law.
Earlier in his career, Lord Pentland was standing junior counsel to the Department of the Environment in Scotland. He also held appointments as Chairman of the Police Appeals Tribunal and as Chairman of the Appeal Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. Between April 2001 and May 2002, he was Chairman of the Public Inquiry into a serious incident of limestone mining subsidence in the Gilmerton area of Edinburgh.
Following his elevation to the Bench, Lord Pentland was appointed in 2010 as a part-time member of the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber). He has also been an intellectual property Judge.
Members
Lord Richardson
Lord Richardson was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Courts in February, 2021.
He studied at Edinburgh University (LL.B) and Universiteit Leiden (LL.M). He practised as a solicitor from 2000 and, following a stage at the European Commission, became an advocate in 2003.
During his career as an advocate, he specialised in commercial law and was Standing Junior to the Scottish Government and to the Office of the Advocate General. He was appointed as a Queen’s Counsel in 2017. Between 2016 and 2018, he served as an advocate depute.
Duncan Hamilton KC
Duncan has built a strong reputation across a range of civil law areas of practice including media law, high value personal injury actions and clinical negligence. He has also gained considerable experience in multiple Public Inquiries.
Top ranked by both the Legal 500 and Chambers, Duncan is a leading Counsel at the Scottish Bar specialising in media law. He is frequently instructed in defamation, privacy, data protection and contempt proceedings by a range of media interests, particularly the BBC.
In public law, Duncan has acted on behalf of the Scottish Government since 2013, and regularly appears on behalf of both the Government and other public bodies in judicial review and personal injury cases, including for public sector clients such as Police Scotland, Transport Scotland, the Scottish Prison Service and the Forestry Commission. He also successfully represented Alex Salmond in the former First Minister’s successful judicial review of the Scottish Ministers.
Duncan also maintains a busy practice in clinical negligence, often acting for healthboards.
He has many years of experience of Fatal Accident Inquiries, often appearing on behalf of the Scottish Ambulance Service.
Duncan has served as a Legal Convener of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland since 2018. He was appointed ad hoc Advocate Depute in 2018. He was appointed to the position of Part-Time Sheriff in 2022.
Duncan was previously a Member of the Scottish Parliament from 1999-2003.
Joel Conn
Mr Conn graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1996 and was admitted as a solicitor in 1998. He is a director of Mitchells Roberton in their litigation department, based in Glasgow. He specialises in commercial litigation and debt recovery and has particular expertise in insolvency, factoring and finance leasing, complex secured debt recovery and all aspects of contract disputes. He was the first solicitor to be awarded accreditation by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in Debt & Asset Recovery Law and frequently provides training on these issues to members of the legal and other professions as well as to clients. Mr Conn also now sit part-time as a Legal Member of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber).
Ian Dickson
Ian Dickson is the Principal Legal Adviser to the Scottish Legal Aid Board. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1984 and was engaged in private practice undertaking both general civil and criminal court until joining SLAB in 2002. Previously within SLAB he was Head of Service of the Civil Legal Assistance Office. He is a solicitor advocate (civil).
Kenneth Campbell KC
Mr Campbell was appointed as a Sheriff on 14th September 2020. Prior to calling to the Bar in 1996, Mr Campbell trained with Dickson Minto before working as a civil litigation solicitor with Brodies. He took silk in 2011 and is a practising member of the English Bar.
Sheriff Principal Nigel Ross
Sheriff Principal Ross qualified as a solicitor in 1988 and called to the Bar in December 1991. His practice was mainly in the newly-established Commercial Court in the Court of Session. He was appointed Standing Junior to the Department of Trade and Industry in 1999. In 2003 he was appointed part-time sheriff and as a full-time sheriff in 2006, initially in Glasgow Sheriff Court and from 2013 in Edinburgh Sheriff Court. He was a designated commercial and extradition sheriff, and has sat in the Sheriff Appeal Court since 2017. He was appointed Sheriff Principal of Lothian and Borders in May 2022.
Summary Sheriff Flinn
Summary Sheriff Flinn is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. He trained with Balfour & Manson and worked in private practice in Dumfries and Edinburgh, dealing with civil and criminal litigation including family law. In 2002 he joined the Government Legal Service for Scotland where he handled a wide range of cases in the sheriff court, Scottish Land Court, Court of Session, House of Lords and European Court of Human Rights. He qualified as a solicitor advocate in 2007. Between 2009 and 2013 he was Head of Public Inquiries for the Scottish Government Legal Directorate. From 2013 to 2019 he was Legal Secretary to the Lord President. Since 2019 he has been sitting as a summary sheriff in Edinburgh. His interests are in contract and commercial law, family law, the law of diligence, and civil procedure.
Mark Boni
Mark graduated from the University of Edinburgh with the degree of Bachelor of Laws with honours in 2010, the decree of Master of Laws in 2011 and the Diploma in Legal Practice in 2012.
He was awarded the class prize for Criminal Court Practice (diploma) and received the highest mark for Medical Law (diploma) and joint highest mark for Civil Court Practice (diploma). Whilst at university, Mark was a research assistant for two of his lecturers, focussing on public law and human rights. He also copy-edited Mac Amhlaigh, Michelon and Walker (eds), After Public Law (Oxford University Press, 2013).
Prior to his traineeship, Mark undertook summer placements with the Government Legal Service for Scotland and the WS Society. Mark trained to be a solicitor with Balfour+Manson LLP. He continued to work there following qualification in 2014 and became an associate in 2016. Mark gained experience in a broad range of commercial, private and public law cases and acted for clients in a number of high[1]profile judicial reviews (notably for the petitioners in Morrison v Carmichael 2015 SC 585, 2015 SC 597 and The Christian Institute v The Lord Advocate 2017 SC (UKSC) 29). Mark regularly conducted procedural and substantive hearings in the Sheriff Courts and acquired a particular knowledge of the operation and application of the Ordinary Cause Rules. Whilst devilling, Mark’s devil masters were Ross McClelland (civil), Usman Tariq (civil) and David Nicolson (criminal). During his devilling, Mark was an ad hoc reporter for the Law Society of Scotland, reporting on conduct complaints. In 2020, Mark called to the Bar and has built up a busy and broad civil practice. He has a particular interest in contract, prescription, personal insolvency, private client litigation and human rights. He is a member of Faculty’s Human Rights and Rule of Law Committee and a member of TrustBar.
Mark has maintained a mixed Court of Session and Sheriff Court practice at the Bar. He has an extensive knowledge of the Ordinary Cause Rules and an appreciation as to how they relate to and differ from the Rules of the Court of Session. Mark tutors “Commercial Law”, “Public Law of the UK and Scotland” and “Public Law and Individual Rights” to undergraduate students at the University of Edinburgh and has been a tutor since 2012.
Currently, Mark is writing the reissue of the “Prescription and Limitation” title for the Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia, which is due to be published later this year. He is due to write the reissue of the “Wills and Succession” title next year. In 2021, Mark was recognised by Legal 500 as a “rising star” for “commercial disputes” and “administrative and public law”
Scottish Government representative
The Scottish Government holds a standing appointment on each Council committee. The current representative is Walter Drummond-Murray, Justice Directorate.
The Council has nominated a number of observers to attend Council and committee meetings in order to assist in the carrying out of its functions. In addition to Rules Rewrite Committee members, the following observers attend Committee meetings:
Rachel Grant, Legislation Implementation Team, Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service
Nicola Marchant, Court of Session, Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service