Lord Kinclaven retires from bench

Court of Session judge Lord Kinclaven has retired from the bench.

Lord Kinclaven, or Alexander (Sandy) Wylie, has served 15 years as a judge since being appointed in 2005. A graduate of the University of Edinburgh, he was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1978 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1991. He was standing junior counsel in Scotland to the Accountant of Court from 1986 to 1989, and served as an advocate depute from 1989 to 1992 and as a part-time sheriff from 2000 to 2005. 

He was called to the English Bar (Lincoln's Inn) in 1990. He was also a member of the Scottish Legal Aid Board from 1994 to 2002; a member of the Scottish Council of Law Reporting from 2001; a part-time chairman of the Discipline Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland from 1994; a part-time chairman of the Police Appeals Tribunal from 2001; and a member of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission from 2004. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

While still a practising advocate he founded the Faculty of Advocates’ MiniTrials initiative in 2002, which has taught thousands of youngsters about the justice system in Scotland, and is still running under a steering group now headed by Lord Mulholland.