First female Lord Advocate named Lord High Commissioner

A trailblazing lawyer has been appointed Lord High Commissioner to the 2025

General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Lady Elish Angiolini is a Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford, where she has been Principal of St Hugh’s College since 2012. In 2023 she was appointed Lord Clerk Register of Scotland, the first woman to hold the role. She was also previously Scotland’s first female Lord Advocate.

She was announced as Lord High Commissioner, the personal representative of the monarch at the General Assembly, in December.

“This is an immense honour, and I very much look forward to the General Assembly in May,” she said.

Lady Elish grew up in Govan in Glasgow and studied law at the University of Strathclyde. after graduation in 1982, she joined the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and, following her traineeship, spent eight years as a depute procurator fiscal in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire.

In 1992 she moved to the Crown Office in Edinburgh to work as part of the Lord Advocate’s Secretariat, when she developed her now long-standing interest in improving the support offered to vulnerable victims and witnesses, particularly children.

She was installed as the first non-political Solicitor General for Scotland in 2001 and served as Lord Advocate, the most senior law officer in Scotland, from 2006-2011. She was the first Lord Advocate to remain in office despite a change in government.

After demitting office in May 2011, she practised as a QC in Scotland and was appointed as a visiting professor of law at the University of Strathclyde, before taking up her appointment at St Hugh’s College the following year.

She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to the administration of justice in 2011, and in 2022 was appointed to the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle.

The Rev Fiona Smith, Principal Clerk of the General Assembly, said: “We are honoured that His Majesty has appointed Lady Elish Angiolini as Lord High Commissioner.

“We very much look forward to welcoming her to the General Assembly in 2025.”

The 2025 General Assembly will take place from May 17-22. The Lord High Commissioner attends and gives speeches at the opening and closing of the Assembly, and spends the week visiting projects around Scotland on behalf of the monarch.