Former Lord Advocate Colin Boyd is reportedly about to be appointed a High Court judge in the latest round of nominations form the Judicial Appointments Board.

Neither the Board nor Boyd have confirmed the position.

Boyd stepped down as Lord Advocate in 2007, taking up a consultancy post at Dundas and Wilson, a move seen at the time by many observers as an attempt to find a "safe harbour" whilst the ongoing Shirly McKie, Chokhar and Pan Am 103 cases continued to provoke public scrutiny.

“I didn’t want to become a judge at this stage, and I didn’t want to go back to the bar and start a practice again. It seemed to me to be a good move to revert to being what I started out in professional life, a solicitor,” Boyd told The Firm at the time.

“I have never ruled out being a judge as an option. For a variety of reasons – some of them personal and some of them to do with my public profile when I went – I didn’t think it was the right thing for me to do at this stage."

A move to the bench seemed to have been Boyd's longer term plan at the time of his move into private practice.

"I have no plans to make an application at the moment, and I am fully committed to Dundas and Wilson. I would never rule it out as a possible option for the future,” he told us in 2008. 

Last year Boyd defended the Pan Am 103 debacle, describing the trial process as "robust