Donald Sage Mackay, Baron Mackay of Drumadoon, PC (30 January 1946 – 21 August 2018) was a British judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland, and a Lord Advocate, the country's senior Law Officer. He was also one of five additional Lords of Appeal in the House of Lords, where he sat as a crossbencher.
Early life
Mackay was born in Aberdeen in 1946, to Donald George Mackintosh Mackay and Jean Margaret Mackay, and educated at the private George Watson's College, Edinburgh.
Mackay was admitted as a solicitor in 1971 and practised for five years with Allan McDougall & Company SSC, becoming a member of the Society of Solicitors in the Supreme Courts of Scotland in 1973, before being admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1976. From 1982 to 1985, he served as an Advocate Depute, a prosecutor in the High Court, and took silk in 1987. and from 1989 to 1995 sat on the Board of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.
Government
In 1995, he replaced Thomas Dawson as Solicitor General for Scotland on the other's appointment as a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland, and later that year succeeded Lord Rodger of Earlsferry as Lord Advocate, and became a Privy Counsellor in 1996. Prior to Scottish devolution in 1999, the Lord Advocate was a political appointment, therefore the Conservative defeat in the 1997 general election, saw Mackay replaced by Labour's Lord Hardie. Between May 1997 and March 2000, he combined practice as a senior counsel with an active role in the House of Lords as Opposition Spokesman on Scotland and Constitutional Affairs.
Personal life and death
In 1979, Mackay married Lesley Ann Waugh. They had three children.
See also
- Senator of the College of Justice