Alan Rodger studied at Glasgow and Oxford Universities before joining the Scottish Faculty of Advocates in 1974. He became Lord Advocate in 1992 before becoming Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session, the head of the country’s judiciary, in 1995.

He was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (Law Lord) in 2001 and became a Justice of the Supreme Court upon its inauguration on October 1 2009, one of two Scottish judges on this body.