DUMBARTON WOMAN IS ONE OF FIVE NEW JUDGES APPOINTED TO COURT OF SESSION

by BILL HEANEY

His Majesty the King, on the recommendation of First Minister John Swinney, has appointed five new Senators to the College of Justice, including a former Lord Advocate.

Dumbarton-born Christine O’Neill KC; Sheriff Principal Aisha Anwar KC; Liam Ewing KC; and Indranil (Julian) Ghosh KC will take up appointment on 24 August 2026. The Rt Hon. Dorothy Bain PC KC, formerly Scotland’s Lord Advocate,  will take up appointment on 7 January 2027.

Lord Pentland, Lord President of the Court of Session, said: “I would like to thank the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland for undertaking the appointment process. I warmly congratulate the five new Senators with whom I look forward to working. Each new Senator brings a distinctive breadth of legal knowledge and professional experience, developed across a wide range of practice areas. That diversity of expertise will be invaluable to them.”

The Lord President added that their contributions would help maintain the strength, integrity and independence of the court system. He expressed confidence that the new Senators would support the continued provision of high-quality justice for the people of Scotland.

Senators hear a wide variety of important civil and criminal business in the Supreme Courts of Scotland.

They preside over the most complex and high-profile cases where decisions have a significant impact.

In the Court of Session, Senators hear an extensive range of civil business including commercial, family, immigration and international child abduction cases. Judicial review cases often involve important and novel points of public law. In the High Court of Justiciary, Senators preside over the most serious criminal cases.

Christine O’Neill KC

Christine O’Neill was born and brought up in Dumbarton by her parents, the late distillery worker Tom O’Neill and his wife Mary. She holds an LLB in Moral Philosophy & Public Law from the University of Glasgow and an LLM from Harvard Law School, where she was a Kennedy Scholar. She taught at Edinburgh Law School before joining Brodies in 2000. A partner from 2004, she was Chair of the firm from 2013 to 2025. She became a solicitor advocate in 2008, was first Standing Junior to the Scottish Government between 2016 and 2020 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2020. She is co-author, with Professor Chris Himsworth and David Blair, of Scotland’s Constitution: Law and Practice.

Sheriff Principal Aisha Anwar KC

Sheriff Principal Aisha Anwar KC was appointed Sheriff Principal of Glasgow and Strathkelvin and President of the Sheriff Appeal Court in 2023 and as a Temporary Judge in 2024.

She graduated from the University of Edinburgh (LLB Hons) in 1996 and from the University of Oxford (BCL) in 1998. She was admitted as a solicitor in 2000. From 2009 to 2012, she became a partner and head of litigation for Scotland in a global law firm.

She was appointed as a part-time sheriff in 2011 and as a sheriff at Glasgow Sheriff Court in 2014, where she was a designated family law and commercial law sheriff. She was appointed Sheriff Principal of South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway in 2020 and as Honorary King’s Counsel in 2024.

Sheriff Principal Anwar designed and developed Summary Case Management (SCM) and chairs the SCM Board. She is an adviser to the Scottish Sentencing Council, a member of the Board of the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service and a former member of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland.

She co-authored the Civil Bench Book for Sheriffs on behalf of the Judicial Institute and is a contributor to the 4th edition of Macphail on Sheriff Court Practice.

Dorothy Bain PC KC

The Right Honourable Dorothy Ruth Bain PC KC is a graduate of the University of Aberdeen who has been in practice at the Scottish Bar since 1994. She was awarded silk in 2007 and served as Scotland’s Lord Advocate from June 2021 until her tenure concluded in June 2026. A significant part of her career has been dedicated to public service as an Advocate Depute, which culminated in her appointment as Principal Crown Counsel for Scotland from 2009 to 2011, the first woman to hold this prosecutorial position in Scotland. She has appeared in many leading cases in the fields of public and administrative law, human rights and criminal law heard before the Court of Session, Edinburgh, the Court of Criminal Appeal, and the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. In 2021 she was appointed to the Privy Council, and in 2023, the University of Aberdeen awarded her an Honorary LLD (Doctor of Laws).

Liam Ewing KC

Liam Ewing is a graduate of the University of Glasgow (LLB Hons) and the University of Strathclyde (LLM). He qualified as a solicitor in 1990 and has both criminal and civil rights of audience. Mr Ewing practised in the criminal, civil and regulatory fields and became a KC in 2019. He has served as an Advocate Depute since 2018 and was subsequently appointed Assistant Principal Crown Counsel. During his time at Crown Office, he conducted a range of complex prosecutions and appeals.

Indranil (Julian) Ghosh KC

Julian Ghosh is an Edinburgh University law graduate. He holds a DPhil from St Edmund’s Hall, Oxford and a PhD from Clare Hall, Cambridge. He practised at the Bar of both England and Wales (Lincoln’s Inn, called 1993, Queen’s Counsel 2006) and Scotland (called 1999, Queen’s Counsel 2010), with a primarily tax practice in England and a mixed practice (latterly including crime) in Scotland. He is a Bye-Fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge and a Preceptor at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, having taught undergraduates across a range of private law and public law subjects. He represented Scotland as a fencer for Scottish Universities, several Five Nations tournaments and at the Commonwealth Games (2018 and 2022).