The Right Honourable Lord Pentland has been appointed as Lord President and, by virtue of that office, becomes the new Chair of the Scottish Civil Justice Council.

Lord Pentland was appointed as Lord President by His Majesty the King and was sworn in at a ceremony in the Court of Session on 3 February 2025. He has been a judge of Scotland’s Supreme Courts (the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary) since 2008, and has presided over a number of high-profile criminal trials as well as significant civil cases and has been an appeal court judge since 2020.

Biography

Between 2014 and 2018 he was chairman of the Scottish Law Commission, the country’s independent law reform body.

Lord Pentland was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1982 and became a Queen’s Counsel in 1995. He served as an Advocate Depute (Crown prosecutor in the High Court) 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 law 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.