Sheriff Brian Kearney

Sheriff Kearney was apprenticed at the firm of McLay Murray and Spens, in 1960, before joining Biggart Lumsden where he specialised in employers’ reparation, becoming a partner there in 1965.

He was appointed to the shrieval bench in 1974, sitting in Dumbarton until 1977 when he was transferred to Glasgow. There he spent the vast majority of his career on the bench, becoming senior sheriff, and retiring in 2007. He was a founding member of the Judicial Studies Committee, now the Judicial Institute.

He made a considerable contribution to the development of the law as it affected children in Scotland. He was a member of the Child Law Review Group (1990) and presided over the Inquiry in to Child Care Polices in Fife (1992).

He was the author of several noted publications, including an Introduction to Civil Procedure in the Sheriff Court (1982), Children’s Hearings and the Sheriff Court (1987 and 2000), and The Scottish Children’s Hearing System in Action (2007). He also authored sections on Children’s Hearings in the Butterworths Family Law Service as well as being part of the team working on the Greens annotated version of the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011.

He was regarded as one of the foremost experts on the law and practice of the children’s hearings system in Scotland and addressed many groups and conferences at home and further afield.

After retirement he was the legal member of the Parole Board for Scotland for several years and played an active role in organising training events for the Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow. He continued to write on the law until his recent illness.

He is survived by his wife Elizabeth and their four children.

His funeral service will take place at 1pm on Wednesday 17 April 2024 at The Church of the Immaculate Conception, 2049 Maryhill Road, Glasgow and thereafter at the Western Necropolis extension cemetery, Lambhill.