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Profile of Sir Stephen Young
(May 11, 2008)
Sir Stephen Young
Sir Stephen is a native of the West of Scotland. He graduated MA LLB from the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh respectively. He had a year between attending these two universities during which he taught English at a secondary school in Sudan under the auspices of Voluntary Service Overseas. He also spent two months or so following this assignment teaching at a secondary school in Kenya. After completing his apprenticeship as a solicitor with a firm in Glasgow he went to work as an assistant solicitor with one of the large firms of solicitors in the City of London. There he concentrated on company law. On his return to Scotland in 1975 he was employed as an assistant solicitor by another firm in Glasgow, concentrating this time on commercial leasing. He was admitted as an advocate in December 1977 and practised as such until 1984. He concentrated chiefly on commercial and land law and trusts but, like more or less all junior advocates at that time, he had his share of divorce work too.
Sir Stephen was appointed a floating sheriff based at Glasgow Sheriff Court on 1 March 1984, and after four months there he was appointed a resident sheriff at Greenock. He remained there until 2001 when he was appointed to his present position as Sheriff Principal of Grampian Highland and Islands. He became a QC in 2002 and early in 2005 he was appointed Chairman of the Sheriff Court Rules Council which is responsible for the preparation and revision of the rules of procedure in the sheriff court. He is an ex officio trustee of various public and charitable trusts and also a Commissioner of the Northern Lighthouses. He became a Governor of Robert Gordon University towards the end of 2005 and is a member of the Audit Committee of the Board.
Sir Stephen is married and he and his wife have two adult sons, both university graduates. In his spare time he is happiest wandering in remote parts of the Highlands and Islands, usually in sight of the sea, and climbing the occasional hill.