Hazel Cosgrove, Lady Cosgrove

Hazel Josephine Cosgrove, Lady Cosgrove, CBE (née Aronson) (born 12 January 1946, Glasgow), is a Scottish lawyer, and was the first woman to be appointed a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of Scotland's Supreme Courts.

Early life

Lady Cosgrove was educated at Glasgow High School for Girls, and the School of Law of the University of Glasgow, graduating LL.B. in 1966. She was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1968 and served as Standing Junior Counsel to the Department of Trade from 1977 to 1979, taking silk in 1991. She was awarded an honorary LL.D. by the University of Glasgow in 2002.^[1]

Judicial career

Cosgrove served as a Sheriff in Glasgow (1979–83) and Edinburgh (1983–96), and as a Temporary Judge from 1992 until 1996. She was a member of the Parole Board for Scotland from 1988 to 1991, Chairman of the Mental Welfare Commission from 1991 to 1996, and Chairman of the Expert Panel on Sex Offending from 1997 to 2001. In 1996, she became the first woman to be appointed as a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of Scotland's Supreme Courts, taking the judicial title, Lady Cosgrove.

In February 2003, Lady Cosgrove was appointed to the Inner House of the Court of Session and sworn of Her Majesty's Privy Council. She received a CBE in 2004 for services to the criminal justice system in Scotland,^[2] and has also been awarded honorary degrees from a number of institutions. Lady Cosgrove retired as a Senator of the College of Justice on 24 March 2006 shortly after her 60th birthday, however she still sits on the bench occasionally when there is a shortage of judges.

Lady Cosgrove has been Deputy Chairman of the Boundary Commission for Scotland since 1997.

References

External links

• Biography, scotcourts.gov.uk; accessed 17 January 2016.