Congratulations to Simon Collins QC, for whom 2011 has been a very big year.  Elevated to Queen’s Counsel only a matter of weeks ago, Simon has now been appointed to the office of part-time Sheriff.

A former law centre solicitor, Simon graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1991, having previously achieved a degree in History and Politics from the University of Exeter. He worked for Legal Services Agency in Glasgow and was called as an Advocate in 1995. He took silk earlier this year.

Simon specialises in public law and human rights, and has acted in many of the leading Scottish cases in these areas in recent years including Napier and Cadder – making him one of the very few people who can (with justification) call themselves a “human rights lawyer”.

According to his page on the Murray Stable website, he has appeared twelve times in the House of Lords, three times in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, twice in the United Kingdom Supreme Court (and once by way of written submissions for an Intervener), and in many high profile cases before the courts in Scotland at all levels. He has also acted in successful litigation before the European Court of Human Rights.

He has been an Advocate Depute, standing junior counsel to the Advocate General, a Part Time Legally Qualified Member of Social Security Tribunals, a Special Representative under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 and a member of the Scottish Law Commission ad hoc Working Party on Adults with Incapacity.

To Sheriff Simon Collins QC, I extend the usual Absolvitor congratulations to those elevated to the bench – in the words of W.S. Gilbert:

May each decree as statute rank;
And never be reversed in banc.

All hail great judge!

The photograph of Simon Collins is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 2.5 Scotland Licence from the Murray Stable.