Tributes paid to Lord Gill as he retires as Lord President

Valedictory tributes have been paid to outgoing Lord President Lord Gill at a special ceremony in the First Division courtroom in Parliament House.

Lord Gill, retiring after nearly 21 years on the bench, said the tributes “mean more to me than I can say”.

Lord Carloway, the Lord Justice Clerk, described Lord Gill’s “distinguished path from passing advocate in 1967 to Lord President” as “a matter of record if not legend”, while James Wolffe QC, Dean of Faculty, praised his commitment to Scotland’s outward-looking legal heritage.

Mr Wolffe described the law reports of the past two decades as “filled with your judgements, expounding and applying the law in your characteristically lapidary prose”.

He added: “Your Presidency of this Court has been characterised by a major campaign of civil justice reform…it aims to effect nothing less than a transformation in the way that we secure civil justice in this country in the 21st Century.”

Alistair Morris, President of the Law Society of Scotland, hailed Lord Gill as a distinguished, pragmatic and reforming holder of the offices of Lord Justice Clerk and Lord President, as well as a man with “Glaswegian wit and good humour”.

Lord Gill said he reflected on his admission to the Faculty of Advocates and his appointment to the Bench as the two great privileges of his career.

He was Lord Justice Clerk from 2001 until his appointment as Lord President in 2012.

Lord Gill said: “To have been Lord President has been an honour. I have tried to live up to the responsibilities of the job in a fitting way…to enhance the reputation of the Court…and to make the work of my colleagues more congenial and fulfilling.

“I leave office with only the happiest of memories of my time as a pleader and my time as a judge.”