Joseph Beltrami

Joseph Beltrami (15 May 1932 – 24 February 2015) was a Scottish lawyer of Italian-Swiss descent. He is acknowledged as one of the foremost criminal solicitors in Scottish legal history.

Early life and family Beltrami was born in Rutherglen, Lanarkshire on 15 May 1932. His father, Egidio Beltrami, was an Italian-Swiss man who had moved to Scotland to open a fish and chip shop; his mother, Isabella, was Scottish. He graduated the University of Glasgow in 1953 having studied Law.

He struggled to find an apprenticeship at a legal firm, due to his Roman Catholic heritage, so after a period in the Intelligence Corps for his national service in the 1950s, he set up his own firm Beltrami & Co. Adrian was a KC specialising in commercial litigation, and Jason was a lawyer in Glasgow. Joe Beltrami died, aged 82, on 23 February 2015.

Career Beltrami was involved in several high-profile cases, including the campaign for the release of Patrick Meehan. He defended such names as Johnny Ramensky, Colin Beattie and gained the first ever Royal Pardon issued in Scotland defending Maurice Swanson.

Before the abolition of the death penalty in 1965, Beltrami successfully defended in 12 capital murder cases, with all 12 of his clients not having to trouble the hangman.

Works

The Defender: Joseph Beltrami, Famous Cases of the Celebrated Criminal Lawyer. (1980) The Defender: Tales of the Suspected (1988) A Deadly Innocence: The Meechan Files (1989)

Honours and Recognitions 1953 - Bachelor of Laws (LLB), University of Glasgow, Scotland 2009 - Honorary Life Membership of the Law Society of Scotland