Appointed by Elizabeth II Religion Jewish Full Name Hazel Aronson Name Hazel Lady | Role Lawyer Profession Advocate | |
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Born 12 January 1946 (age 78) Glasgow ( 1946-01-12 ) | ||
Hazel Josephine Cosgrove, Lady Cosgrove, CBE (née Aronson) (born 12 January 1946, Glasgow), is a Scottish lawyer and judge. She was the first woman to be appointed a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of Scotland's Supreme Courts, serving from 1996 to until her retirement in 2006.
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Early life
Hazel Aronson was born in Glasgow, the daughter of Moses Aron Aronson and Julia Tobias. She has a younger sister who is a solicitor. She was educated at Glasgow High School for Girls, and then studied at the School of Law of the University of Glasgow, graduating LL.B. in 1966.
She married John Allan Cosgrove in 1967. He is a dental surgeon. They had two children, a son and a daughter.
Legal career
She continued to use her maiden name, Aronson, in a professional context, and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1968. She served as Standing Junior Counsel to the Department of Trade from 1977 to 1979, and took silk to become a Queen's Counsel in 1991. She was awarded an honorary LL.D. by the University of Glasgow in 2002.
Judicial career
She was the first woman to serve as a Sheriff of Glasgow and Strathkelvin (1979–83) and of Lothian and Borders at Edinburgh (1983–96), She was a Temporary Judge of the High Court and Court of Session from 1992 until 1996. She was a member of the Parole Board for Scotland from 1988 to 1991, Chairman of the Mental Welfare Commission from 1991 to 1996, and Chairman of the Expert Panel on Sex Offending from 1997 to 2001.
In 1996, she became the first woman to be appointed as a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of Scotland's Supreme Courts, taking the judicial title, Lady Cosgrove. Previously, she had continued to use her maiden name, Aronson, in a professional context.
In February 2003, Lady Cosgrove was appointed to the Inner House of the Court of Session and sworn of Her Majesty's Privy Council. She received a CBE in 2004 for services to the criminal justice system in Scotland, and has also been awarded honorary degrees from a number of institutions. Lady Cosgrove retired as a Senator of the College of Justice on 24 March 2006 shortly after her 60th birthday, however she still sits on the bench occasionally when there is a shortage of judges.
She was Deputy Chairman of the Boundary Commission for Scotland from 1997 to 2006.