On the recommendation of the First Minister, His Majesty the King has appointed Matthew Auchincloss, Julius Komorowski, Valerie Mays, Kevin McCarron, Iain Nicol, and Gillian Sharp as Sheriffs for Lothian and Borders.
The Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland advise the First Minister. This is an independent advisory public body with the role of making recommendations on who should be appointed as judges in the Court of Session, chair of the Scottish Land Court, sheriff principal, sheriff, and summary sheriff.
The First Minister has statutory responsibility for making recommendations to His Majesty the King and is required by statute to consult the Lord President of the Court of Session before making his recommendation.
The salary of a sheriff is ÂŁ157,705 per annum.
Matthew Auchincloss graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1993 with a Master of Arts Ordinary Degree and a LLB Scots Law (concurrent with MA) in 1995, then a Diploma in Legal Practice in 1996. He was a partner at Gordon McBain and Company before joining the Public Defence Solicitors’ Office in 2003 as Deputy Director.  In 2005, Mr Auchincloss was appointed Director of the PDSO. In the same year he was granted extended rights of audience (criminal).  He was appointed as a Summary Sheriff in 2021.
Julius Komorowski was a practising Advocate from 2008, with a break from 2011 to serve as Law Clerk to the Lord Justice-Clerk, then Lord President (Lord Gill). Upon his return in 2013, he was standing junior counsel to the Advocate General, and from 2016 he was Editor of Session Cases, until leaving practice in 2020 upon appointment as a First-tier Tribunal Judge (Immigration and Asylum Chamber). Since 2015 he has also served on the Additional Support Needs Tribunal for Scotland, latterly the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Health and Education Chamber).
Valerie Mays holds an LLB (Hons) and a Dip LP from Glasgow University and an LLM in European Law from Strathclyde University. Admitted as a solicitor in 1995 she has worked for SCRA and as a procurator fiscal depute. She was employed as a solicitor in the Government Legal Services for Scotland from 1999 to 2006. From 2006 to 2018 she worked as a solicitor at the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland. She was appointed as a judge of the First-tier Tribunal (Social Entitlement Chamber) in 2013 and (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) in 2014. In 2018 she was appointed as a summary sheriff at Glasgow.
Kevin McCarron is a graduate of Glasgow University and thereafter worked in private practice as a Solicitor. In 2021 he was appointed as a Part-Time Summary Sheriff, and has been working full time in this position since October 2022 in Glasgow Sheriff Court. He is also a Legal Member of the Parole Board for Scotland.
Iain Nicol graduated from the University of Aberdeen with an LLB in 1989 and Diploma in Legal Practice in 1990. He worked in private practice for 33 years, mainly in the field of personal injury law. In 2003 he was accredited by the Law Society as a specialist in personal injury law and in 2018 awarded Fellowship status of APIL. He co-authored “Expenses: A civil practitioner’s handbook” published in 2022 and was convener of the Law Society’s Civil Justice Committee. In January 2022 he was appointed as a part-time sheriff.
Gillian Sharp graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1994 with an LLB (Hons) degree, obtaining the Diploma LPP in 1995. After completing a criminal law traineeship, she joined a family law practice before specialising in commercial litigation at MacRoberts. Between 2014 – 2019 she was a civil litigation tutor on the Diploma LPP at Strathclyde University. After joining Anderson Strathern LLP in 2016, Gillian developed a substantial practice in complex, high value, and novel disputes. She was assumed as a partner in 2018 and appointed Head of Dispute Resolution in 2023.
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