John Alastair Cameron, Lord Abernethy, is a distinguished Scottish lawyer and former Senator of the College of Justice, Scotland’s Supreme Courts, where he served from 1992 until his retirement in 2007. He held various significant legal roles, including Advocate Depute (1972-1975), Standing Junior Counsel to the Department of Energy (1976-1979), and the Scottish Development Department (1978-1979). In 1979, he was appointed Queen’s Counsel and subsequently became Chairman of Faculty Services Limited, the services branch of the Faculty of Advocates. He also served as the vice-dean of the Faculty of Advocates, Legal Chairman and later President of the Pensions Appeal Tribunals.
Beyond his judicial duties, Lord Abernethy contributed to the legal community as Vice-Chairman and Chairman of the Judges’ Forum of the International Bar Association, and as a council member of the IBA’s Section on Legal Practice and Human Rights Institute. He was the first President of the Scottish Medico-Legal Society, serving from 1996 to 2000.