Paul Benedict Cullen, Lord Pentland, (born 11 March 1957) is the current

Lord President of the Court of Session The Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General () is the most senior judge in Scotland, the head of the judiciary, and the presiding judge of the College of Justice, the Court of Session, and the High Court of Justiciary. ...

and

Lord Justice General Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

, the most senior judge in Scotland. He is a former

Solicitor General for Scotland His Majesty's Solicitor General for Scotland () is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, and the deputy of the Lord Advocate, whose duty is to advise the Scottish Government on Scots Law. They are also responsible for the Crown Office and P ...

Senator of the College of Justice The senators of the College of Justice in Scotland are judges of the College of Justice, a set of legal institutions involved in the administration of justice in Scotland. There are three types of senator: Lords of Session (judges of the Court ...

and Chairman of the

Scottish Law Commission The Scottish Law Commission () is an advisory non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. It was established in 1965 to keep Scots law under review and recommend necessary reforms to improve, simplify and update the country's legal ...

Early life

Born in

Gosforth Gosforth is an area of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, situated north of the Newcastle City Centre, City Centre. It constituted a separate Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), urban district of Northumberland from 1895 until 1974 before of ...

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, he was educated at St Augustine's High School,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and at the School of Law of the University of Edinburgh.

Legal career

Department of Environment

Cullen was admitted to the

Faculty of Advocates The Faculty of Advocates () is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary. The Faculty of Advocates is a const ...

in 1982,

devilling Devilling is the custom of more senior self employed barristers/advocates making use of their junior’s services to complete briefs belonging to the more senior barrister/advocate, usually without the knowledge of the attorney. Not to be confuse ...

for

Alan Rodger Alan Ferguson Rodger, Baron Rodger of Earlsferry (18 September 1944 – 26 June 2011) was a Scottish academic, lawyer, and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. He served as Lord Advocate, the senior Law Officer of Scotland, ...

QC. He tutored part-time at the

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

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 An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...

in Scotland from 1988 to 1991 and appointed an

Advocate Depute The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service () is the independent public prosecutor, prosecution service for Scotland, and is a Ministerial Department of the Scottish Government. The department is headed by Charles III of the United Kingd ...

in 1992, becoming a

Queen's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1995. A member of the Conservative Party, he became

, the junior

Law Officer The law officers are the senior legal advisors to His Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom and devolved governments of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They are variously referred to as the Attorney General, Solicitor General, Lord Ad ...

in Scotland, in 1995, when Donald Mackay succeeded

Lord Rodger of Earlsferry Alan Ferguson Rodger, Baron Rodger of Earlsferry (18 September 1944 – 26 June 2011) was a Scottish academic, lawyer, and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. He served as Lord Advocate, the senior Law Officer of Scotland, ...

Lord Advocate His Majesty's Advocate, known as the Lord Advocate (), is the principal legal adviser of both the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolution, devolved powers of the Scottish P ...

, the senior Law Officer. He held this post until the Labour election victory in 1997, when he was succeeded by Colin Boyd, who later became Lord Advocate.

Gilmerton enquiry

He was the chairman of the public inquiry into the

Gilmerton Gilmerton is a suburb of Edinburgh, about southeast of the city centre. The toponym "Gilmerton" is derived from a combination of – a personal name and later surname meaning "Servant of he VirginMary", from which comes the first element, ...

Limestone Emergency in 2001–2002, and has been Chairman of the Appeal Committee of the

Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) is the world's first professional body of Chartered Accountants (CAs).{{Citation needed, date=November 2023 ICAS act as a voice of the professional business community. Although other Brit ...

and of the Police Appeals Tribunal. In 2003, ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' 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 a former dean of the Faculty) and Michael Jones, Lord Jones (who was fifty-fifth with earnings of £750,000). He was involved in a number of high-profile cases, including the

Countryside Alliance The Countryside Alliance (CA) is a British organisation promoting issues relating to the countryside such as farming, rural services, small businesses and field sports, aiming to "Give Rural Britain a voice". History The Countryside Allian ...

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 The Inner House is the senior part of the Court of Session, the supreme civil court in Scotland; the Outer House forms the junior part of the Court of Session. It is a court of appeal and a court of first instance. The chief justice is th ...

of the

Court of Session The Court of Session is the highest national court of Scotland in relation to Civil law (common law), civil cases. The court was established in 1532 to take on the judicial functions of the royal council. Its jurisdiction overlapped with othe ...

under the

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (asp 13) was an Act of the Scottish Parliament passed in 2002. It covers public bodies over which the Scottish Parliament has jurisdiction, fulfilling a similar purpose to the UK-level Freedom of Inf ...

and the first such appeal to the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

Senator of College of Justice

In November 2008, Cullen was appointed as a

, a judge of the

High Court of Justiciary The High Court of Justiciary () is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The High Court is both a trial court and a court of appeal. As a trial court, the High Court sits on circuit at Parliament House or in the adjacent former Sheriff C ...

and

, the

Supreme Courts of Scotland The College of Justice () includes the Supreme Courts of Scotland, and its associated bodies. The constituent bodies of the national supreme courts are the Court of Session, the High Court of Justiciary, the Office of the Accountant of Court, ...

, and took the judicial title, Lord Pentland. In 2010 he was appointed as a member of the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber). He has also served as an Intellectual Property judge. Lord Pentland was appointed as Chairman of the

on 1 January 2014 for a period of five years until 31 December 2018. He was appointed to the First Division of the Inner House of the Court of Session in July 2020, and to the Privy Council in September 2020.

Lord President of Court of Session

On 9 January 2025, it was announced that Lord Pentland had been appointed as the next Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General. He succeeded Lord Carloway on 3 February 2025.

Political career

Cullen contested the Eastwood constituency at the 1997 general election for the Conservative Party, but finished in second place to

Jim Murphy James Francis Murphy (born 23 August 1967) is a Scottish former politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2014 to 2015 and Secretary of State for Scotland from 2008 to 2010. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for East R ...

of the Labour Party. All Conservative Party representation was wiped out from Scottish constituencies at that election. Cullen served as Vice-President of the Edinburgh South Conservative Association from 1997 until he took the bench in 2008. He represented the

Scottish Conservative Party The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (), known as Scottish Tories, is part of the UK Conservative Party active in Scotland. It currently holds 5 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons, 30 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Par ...

on the Consultative Steering Group in 1998-99 which helped prepare procedures for the new

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...

. He was appointed Chairman of the Disciplinary Panel of the Scottish Conservatives in 2000.

Personal life

Cullen is married to Joyce Nicol, former Chair 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 The New Club is a private social club in the New Town, Edinburgh, New Town area of Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded in 1787, it is Scotland's oldest club. The club occupied premises on St Andrew Square from 1809 until 1837, when it moved to purpo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cullen, Paul 1957 births Living people People from Gosforth Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Scottish Conservative politicians Solicitors general for Scotland Pentland, Cullen, Paul, Lord Members of the Faculty of Advocates People educated at St Augustine's High School, Edinburgh Academics of the University of Edinburgh Scottish King's Counsel 20th-century King's Counsel Scottish Conservative parliamentary candidates Lords President of the Court of Session