The Honourable Lord Pentland |
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Senator of the College of Justice | |
Incumbent | |
Assumed office 5th November 2008 |
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Nominated by | Alex Salmond As First Minister |
Appointed by | Elizabeth II |
Preceded by | Lord Macfadyen |
Solicitor General for Scotland | |
In office 1995–1997 |
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Prime Minister | John Major |
Preceded by | Donald Mackay |
Succeeded by | Colin Boyd |
Personal details | |
Born | Paul Cullen 11 March 1957 Gosforth, England |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse(s) | Joyce Nicol |
Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
Profession | Advocate |
Website | Scottish Courts Service |
Paul Benedict Cullen, Lord Pentland (11 March 1957) is a former Solicitor General for Scotland and a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the country's Supreme Courts.
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Born in Gosforth, Northumberland, he was educated at St Augustine's High School, Edinburgh and at the School of Law of the University of Edinburgh.[1]
Cullen was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1982, and tutored part-time at the Faculty of Law at the University of Edinburgh from 1982 to 1986, when he was elected Clerk of the Faculty of Advocates, serving until 1991. He was Standing Junior Counsel to the Department of the Environment in Scotland from 1988–91 and appointed an Advocate Depute in 1992, becoming a Queen's Counsel in 1995. A member of the Conservative Party, he became Solicitor General for Scotland, the junior Law Officer in Scotland, in 1995, when Donald Mackay succeeded Lord Rodger of Earlsferry as Lord Advocate, the senior Law Officer. He held this post until the Labour election victory in 1997, when he was succeeded by Colin Boyd, who would later become Lord Advocate.[2]
He was the Chairman of the public inquiry into the Gilmerton Limestone Emergency in 2001-2002, and has been Chairman of the Appeal Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and of the Police Appeals Tribunal.[2][3] In 2003, The Scotsman named him the seventieth highest earner in Scotland, and third highest earner at the Bar, after Richard Keen QC (who was sixty-first with earnings of £600,000 and now Dean of the Faculty) and Michael Jones QC (who was fifty-fifth with earnings of £750,000).[4] He was involved in a number of high-profile cases, including the Countryside Alliance challenge to the Scottish fox-hunting ban, judicial review connected to the Stockline Plastics factory explosion, and the first two appeals to the Inner House of the Court of Session under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the first such appeal to the House of Lords.[3]
Cullen is a member of the Conservative Party and contested Eastwood at the 1997 General Election, but was unsuccessful. No Conservative MPs were returned from Scottish constituencies at that election. Cullen has been Vice-President of the Edinburgh South Conservative Association since 1997, and represented the Scottish Conservative Party on the Consultative Steering Group in 1998-99 which helped prepare procedures for the new Scottish Parliament. He was appointed Chairman of the Disciplinary Panel of the Scottish Conservatives in 2000.
In November 2008, Cullen was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the High Court of Justiciary and Court of Session, the Supreme Courts of Scotland.[1][2] He took the judicial title, Lord Pentland,[5] and presently sits in the Outer House of the Court of Session.
Cullen is married to Joyce Nicol, Chairman of Brodies LLP (1983), with whom he has two sons and a daughter. He plays tennis and bridge, and is a member of the New Club.
Legal offices | ||
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Preceded by Donald Mackay |
Solicitor General for Scotland 1995-97 |
Succeeded by Colin Boyd |
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