# Paul Cullen, Lord Pentland

Paul Benedict Cullen, Lord Pentland, PC (born 11 March 1957) is the current Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General, the most senior judge in Scotland. He is a former Solicitor General for Scotland, Senator of the College of Justice and Chairman of the Scottish Law Commission.

## Early life

Born in Gosforth, Northumberland, he was educated at St Augustine's High School, Edinburgh and at the School of Law of the University of Edinburgh.

## Legal career

Cullen was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1982, devilling for Alan Rodger QC. He tutored part-time at the Faculty of Law at the University of Edinburgh 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 in Scotland from 1988 to 1991 and appointed an Advocate Depute in 1992, becoming a Queen's Counsel in 1995. A member of the Conservative Party, he became Solicitor General for Scotland, the junior Law Officer in Scotland, in 1995, when Donald Mackay succeeded Lord Rodger of Earlsferry as Lord Advocate, 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.
He was the chairman of the public inquiry into the Gilmerton Limestone Emergency in 2001–2002, and has been Chairman of the Appeal Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and of the Police Appeals Tribunal. In 2003, The Scotsman 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 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 of the Court of Session under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the first such appeal to the House of Lords.

### The Bench

In November 2008, Cullen was appointed as a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the High Court of Justiciary and Court of Session, the Supreme Courts of Scotland, 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 Scottish Law Commission 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.
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 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 on the Consultative Steering Group in 1998-99 which helped prepare procedures for the new Scottish Parliament. He was appointed Chairman of the Disciplinary Panel of the Scottish Conservatives in 2000.

## Personal life

Cullen is married to Joyce Nicol, former chairman 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.