Parole Board for Scotland

Brian Donald

 
Brian Donald is a graduate of the University of St Andrews (1965) and completed his post-graduate training as a solicitor in Edinburgh in 1967. After some two years practice as a qualified assistant solicitor, he spent two happy years (1970-1972) working in Rome in the Shenker Institute as a teacher of English as a foreign language, having spent university vacations working in Strasbourg and becoming fluent in his languages.

He resumed legal practice in Edinburgh (1973) and became a partner in J&A Hastie SSC Edinburgh, Glasgow and Galashiels in 1974, heading up the litigation department. He was appointed a member of the Stewart Committee on Alternatives to Prosecution between 1978 and 1982 and taught civil advocacy in Edinburgh University Law School between 1981 and 1991.

Brian was appointed a temporary Sheriff in 1984 and became a founder member of the Scottish Legal Aid Board in 1985, serving as a member until 1991. He was appointed full-time Sheriff at Kirkcaldy in 1999 and became the first Sheriff member of the Apex Scotland Board in 1996. He served as a Sheriff, including presiding over one of Scotland’s two Drug Courts, from 2002 until his semi-retirement.

Brian took semi-retirement in 2008 when he was re-appointed as a part-time Sheriff and part-time legal member of the Parole Board for Scotland. That semi-retirement plan has come to fruition since his part-time work enables him to enjoy his house in Provence for approximately half of each month and indulge in his hobbies of European languages, good food and wine, music, theatre and choral singing in both his favourite countries, Scotland and France.