William Nimmo Smith, Lord Nimmo Smith

William Austin Nimmo Smith (6 November 1942) is a former Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland, sitting in the High Court of Justiciary and the Inner House of the Court of Session. He retired from this position on 30 September 2009.

Early life Nimmo Smith was educated as a King's Scholar at Eton College, and studied Classics at Balliol College, University of Oxford (BA Hons 1965), and Law at the School of Law of the University of Edinburgh (LL.B. 1967). He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1969.

Legal career Nimmo Smith was appointed Standing Junior Counsel (legal advisor appointed by the Lord Advocate) to the Department of Employment in 1977, serving until 1982, at which time he took silk. From 1983 to 1986, he was an Advocate Depute, representing the Crown in prosecutions and appeals in the High Court. From 1986 to 1991, he was Chairman of the Medical Appeal Tribunals and the Vaccine Damage Tribunals, and from 1988 to 1996 was a part-time member of the Scottish Law Commission.

In 1995 he was appointed by Michael Forsyth, the Secretary of State for Scotland, to conduct a local inquiry with the terms of reference: "To inquire into the question whether Monklands District Council have failed to comply with the duty imposed on them by section 7 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 to make appointments to paid office or employment on merit, and to report thereon." After conducting the inquiry, which included the taking of evidence at hearings open to the public, he reported on 15 December 1995 that there was no evidence that any such appointment had been made otherwise than on merit. The Secretary of State so advised Parliament on 20 December 1995.

The Bench Nimmo Smith was appointed a temporary judge of the Court of Session in 1995, and in 1996 was raised fully to the Bench as a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the Court of Session and High Court of Justiciary, Scotland's Supreme Courts, with the judicial title, Lord Nimmo Smith. Whilst a judge of the Outer House of the Court of Session, he served as the Insolvency Judge from 1997 to 2005, and as one of the Intellectual Property Judges from 1998 to 2005. He also served as a member of the Lands Valuation Appeal Court from 2002 to 2009. In 2002, he was one of five judges who heard the appeal of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands.

Also in 2012 the then Scottish Premier League (SPL) appointed Nimmo Smith to be Chairman of a Commission to inquire into certain aspects of payments made by RFC between 2000 and 2011, under its then owner (Oldco), to registered players employed by it. After various hearings the Decision of the Commission was published in February 2013. Among its findings, the Commission concluded that certain side-letter arrangements, under which these payments were made, were required to be disclosed to the SPL and the SFA; and because Oldco had decided not to make such disclosure it had been in breach of the relevant rules. The Commission accordingly fined Oldco for this breach, but because it was not established that RFC gained any unfair competitive advantage from the contraventions of the rules, nor that the non-disclosure had the effect that any of the registered players were ineligible to play, the Commission did not impose any sporting sanction or penalty on RFC.

Personal life Nimmo Smith married Jennifer Main in 1968, with whom he has a son and a daughter, the novelist Harriet Tyce. He was Chairman of the Council of the Cockburn Association from 1996 to 2001, being succeeded in this position by fellow judge Lord Macfadyen.

Recreations His published recreations are music and mountaineering. In Scotland, he has climbed all 282 Munros twice, and all 222 Corbetts once.