Lady Rae retires from bench

Court of Session and High Court judge Lady Rae has retired.

Lady Rae, who was appointed a judge in 2014, qualified as a solicitor in 1974 and became a partner with Ross Harper & Murphy. She was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1982 and appointed Queen's Counsel 10 years later.

While at the bar she was variously a member of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, the Sentencing Commission for Scotland, the Parole Board for Scotland, and Glasgow University “Legal 40” from 2010, mentoring diploma students. She remains honorary president of the Glasgow branch of the Scottish Association for the Study of Offending.

She served as a temporary sheriff from 1987-97, a sheriff at Glasgow from 1997 and a temporary judge at the Court of Session from 2004-2013. She was appointed a senator of the College of Justice in January 2014, and from 2017 until the end of 2018 she also served as an Upper Tribunal judge in immigration and asylum cases.

In 2019 she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Glasgow in recognition of her contribution to Scots law.