The Board
There are currently sixteen Board Members: eight judicial/legal members and eight lay members including the Lay Chairing Member.
The Chairing Member receives a fee of £379.92 per day. The other lay members and the legal members receive a fee of £320.85 per day. The judicial members do not receive any fees for work undertaken except for President May Dunsmuir who receives fees commensurate with her role as a Chamber President. All Board Members are eligible to claim for expenses incurred on Board business, based on Scottish Government Travel and Subsistence rules.
The Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008 allows for Board Members to be appointed for a period of no more than four years; appointments can be renewed up to a maximum of 8 years.
Lindsay Montgomery CBE, FRSE, has substantial experience in the management, leadership and governance of public bodies. Past roles include Chief Executive of the Scottish Legal Aid Board, Deputy Chair and later Chair of the Scottish Charity Regulator and Chair of Community Justice Scotland. He has also worked in various Government departments, including HM Treasury.
Lindsay has an extensive background in Scotland’s justice system. In addition to his role as Chief Executive of SLAB from 1999 until 2016, other roles include membership of the Scottish Civil Justice Council, the Scottish Government Justice Board and the National Criminal Justice Board. He was a member of several policy and reference groups for reviews of aspects of the justice system in Scotland, including Lord Gill's review of Scottish Civil Courts, Lord Carloway's review of Criminal Law and Practice and Sheriff Principal Taylor’s review of Expenses of Funding for Civil Litigation in Scotland.
He is a visiting professor in the School of Law at the University of Strathclyde with a focus on legal aid and access to justice, and Vice Chair of the International Legal Aid Group.
Other current roles include Chair of the Scottish Government Digital Board, as well as consultancy and other non-executive roles.
In 2009 he was awarded a CBE for his services to the administration of justice. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
He was appointed as the Chairing Member of JABS in January 2022.
President May Dunsmuir is a solicitor, graduating from the University of Glasgow. She is Chamber President of the Health and Education Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland. Prior to that, she was the President of the Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland. President Dunsmuir was also previously a Convener with the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland (MHTS). She served as an In-house Convener with the MHTS and was Lead Convener for child and adolescent mental health tribunals.
Before undertaking judicial appointments, Mrs Dunsmuir was a Children’s Reporter.
President Dunsmuir was appointed to the board in May 2022 for four years.
Board Member Position: Judicial Member
Elizabeth Burnley has a background in Occupational Psychology, HR and general management. Her career started within manufacturing industry, within railway and chemical engineering. After leading a company manufacturing industrial locomotives, she moved into consultancy in team development and assessment and selection methods, an area she then undertook for the Boots Company plc. After experience as a Non-executive Director within the NHS, Elizabeth chaired fitness to practise hearings for the Nursing and Midwifery Council and sat as a Lay Member for hearings at the General Pharmaceutical Council.
She has a BSc and MSc from the University of Nottingham, an MBA from the Open University and an honorary doctorate from the University of Derby.
As a volunteer, Elizabeth was Chief Guide for the UK for 5 years and continues as an active volunteer.
Mrs Burnley was appointed as a Lay Assistant in January 2016 for three years. Further to this, she was appointed as a Lay Board Member from August 2018 for four years. In August 2022 her term was extended a further four years, until August 2026.
Board Member Position: Lay Member
A graduate in law from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Sheriff Farquharson called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1993. After practising in Chambers in London, she returned home to Scotland and was admitted into the Faculty of Advocates in 2002.
In 2010 she became an Advocate Depute, latterly the Assistant Principal Crown Counsel. She was appointed King’s Counsel in 2018.
Sheriff Farquharson was appointed as a resident sheriff for Livingston in October 2021 and in February 2024 a temporary judge in the High Court of Justiciary
Board Member Position: Judicial Member
Paul spent 40 years in the civil service, leaving in 2019. He held a number of director general posts in Scottish government from 2009 onwards, culminating in the role of chief executive of NHS Scotland and DG health and social care. During his civil service career, he served all of the main parties of government in both the UK and devolved administrations.
Paul now has a diverse portfolio covering academia and the public, private and third sectors. He is a Civil Service Commissioner, an honorary professor at the University of Glasgow, Scotland’s member of council for the Open University, and patron of Medics Against Violence. He is a senior faculty member at the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh), on the board of the Care Inspectorate, a Fellow of SRUC, and a senior advisor to public affairs firm Charlotte Street Partners.
Paul was appointed to the board in November 2023 for four years.
Board Member Position: Lay Member
Emma is a Lay Member of the Judicial Appointments Board and joined us in December 2021. She has extensive recruitment and leadership experience and enjoys all aspects of people development; talent assessment, engagement and optimising their performance.
She led an award winning recruitment business from start up to her exit in 2019 as Managing Director. Emma led their digitisation, rebranding and entry into new markets and was a champion of DEI strategies whilst supporting multiple firms in their bid to attract and secure the best talent for their business.
Emma has worked on a consultancy basis for a variety of firms from employee owned businesses to plcs and is particularly interested in organisations who are striving for excellence and efficiency.
She has sat on the board of West Lothian College, BE-ST and Exmos and is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Connect Three, a leadership and learning consultancy.
Emma has a BA in Law, two children and lives in Edinburgh.
Board Member Position: Lay Member
Emma was appointed to the Board in December 2021 for a term of four years.
Shona Haldane is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. She trained at a large Edinburgh firm and worked for the same firm for five years before pursuing a career at the Bar. She called at the bar in 1996 and enjoyed a busy civil practice, including appointments as Standing Junior to the Forestry Commission and thereafter the Home Office.
She also held an appointment as an Ad Hoc Advocate Depute for a number of years as well as serving on the Presbyterial Commission of the Church of Scotland. Shona took silk in 2010 and then, in 2021, was appointed as a Senator of the College of Justice (a High Court Judge).
Lady Haldane was appointed to the Judicial Appointments Board in May 2022.
Board Member Position: Judicial Member
A graduate in both history and law, Lord Weir served his traineeship with Maclay Murray and Spens, Solicitors, before being admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in July 1995.
He served as an Advocate Depute between 2005 and 2008, took silk in 2010, and was appointed a floating sheriff of South Strathclyde Dumfries and Galloway, based at Hamilton Sheriff Court, in April 2015.
In April 2018 he took up a position as one of the resident sheriffs at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, sitting as one of the specialist sheriffs in the All Scotland Sheriff Personal Injury Court. He served as a temporary judge of the Court of Session between 2017 and 2020, and was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice in April 2020.
Board Member Position: Judicial Member
Lord Weir was appointed to the Board in January 2023 for a term of four years.
Denise is a solicitor in private practice with a background in commercial litigation having qualified in 1987 and is currently Managing Director of Yuill & Kyle Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of MacRoberts LLP. Denise has previously held Board appointments in the Scottish Legal Aid Board and the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission. She is also a senior tutor at the University of Glasgow, teaching on the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice in both civil and advanced civil litigation. Denise was previously appointed to the Board by The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs as a temporary Legal Member in 2023. Denise has since been reappointed as a Legal Member from 1 February 2025 for a period of 3 years.
Board Member Position: Legal Member
Kate Dowdalls KC is a graduate of the Univerity of Strathclyde. After completing her traineeship, she spent 13 years as a solicitor in private practice. She was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 2000 and took silk in 2013. She was appointed Scottish Law Commissioner in July 2018, to lead the Aspects of family law project. In June 2023 she was appointed Sheriff Principal of South Strathclyde Dumfries and Galloway.
Board Member Position: Judicial Member
Paul Cackette is a former Director of Legal Services and former Chief Planning Reporter in the Scottish Government. Before retiring in January 2021, he was the Scottish Government Director of PPE and Director, Outbreak Management during the Covid pandemic. He was awarded a CBE in 2021.
At present he is a Visiting Professor of Public Law at Strathclyde University and is a part-time self-employed planning reporter. He was appointed in 2022 as an independent external reviewer in relation to a review of systems and procedures in the Irish Planning system (An Bord Pleanala). That work was completed in December 2022. Paul sits on the Planning sub-committee of the Law Society.
After joining the Government Legal Service in 1988, Paul led reform of the civil justice system for the government between 2003 and 2008 while working in the Justice Directorate. He was then appointed as Legal Secretary to the Lord Advocate and in 2009 became Deputy Solicitor to the Scottish Government. He was a member of the Project Board for the construction of the Queensferry Crossing. He is committed to broadening diversity in the judiciary and was the Scottish Government Disability Champion up until 2016.
Board Member Position: Legal Member
Paul was appointed in November 2023 for 3 years.
Jonathan Barne K.C. has been practising at the Scottish Bar since 2003.
Having graduated from Oxford University in 1992, Jonathan worked as a journalist in Estonia and then was employed as a cataloguer in the Chinese art department of an international auction house. Jonathan attended Edinburgh University in 1997 to undertake and accelerated law degree. He completed his legal traineeship with Shepherd and Wedderburn in 2002 before being admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 2003. In 2008, he was appointed a standing junior to the Scottish Government. Jonathan took Silk in 2017 and enjoys a broad civil practice with a particular focus on commercial law, property law, construction law, professional negligence and public/administrative law.
Board Member Position: Legal Member
Jonathan was appointed in November 2023 for 3 years.