SCOTLAND'S legal system finally has two new men at the helm with the announcement from Downing Street yesterday that Douglas Cullen has been appointed as lord president of the Court of Session and Brian Gill as lord justice clerk.

The announcement comes six weeks after Lord Rodger, the previous lord president, was appointed as an appeal judge in the House of Lords. The delay has attracted widespread criticism within the legal profession.

Even after devolution, the appointment of Scotland's two senior judges remains in the hands of the prime minister, a situation which some senior legal figures have attacked as an anomaly.

Lord Cullen, who will be 66 on Sunday, had been lord justice clerk - number two in the judicial hierarchy - since 1997. His elevation to the senior job left a vacancy which has now been filled by Lord Gill, 59, who has been a supreme court judge for seven years.

Although Lord Cullen has been a judge since 1986, he has been in the public eye mainly because he has been appointed to head the inquiries into three major disasters - the Piper Alpha oil platform explosion, the Dunblane shootings and the Paddington rail crash.

His meticulous work in all three is said to have attracted the admiration of Tony Blair, who was responsible for recommending the appointments to the Queen.

The appointment of Brian Gill as lord justice clerk will disappoint those searching for the Edinburgh New Town stereotype usually attached to the legal establishment.

He was brought up in Riddrie, in Glasgow. His father Tommy, an insurance agent, also played the saxophone professionally to help pay for his son's education at St Aloysius' College and Glasgow University.

In an interview with The Herald in 1995 Lord Gill stressed: ''I'm not a member of the establishment in Edinburgh, never have been and don't particularly want to be.''

Not long after his appointment as a judge, Lord Gill attacked Scotland's civil justice system as a relic of a bygone age and called for a wide-ranging review with the public interest as the paramount consideration.

''If you were to sit down and start to work out a system today, it would be nothing like the one we've got.''

The father of five sons and a daughter, Lord Gill was a contemporary at Glasgow University of Menzies Campbell, MP, who has praised Lord Gill's ''high-octane mind''.

''He's a man of great religious faith and a rigorous intellect,'' Mr Campbell said.

In his time as a judge, Lord Gill has been involved in a number of high profile cases, in particular the case where a Tayside couple claimed damages over the birth of a daughter after a failed vasectomy.

Controversially, but later upheld by the House of Lords, Lord Gill refused to award any damages, taking the view that the birth of a healthy and loved child was a blessing which outweighed any financial cost in bringing it up.

In a decision which was later overruled, Lord Gill also refused to allow a gay couple to adopt a severely handicapped five-year-old boy.

He said the issue of adoption by homosexual couples raised fundamental questions of principle, including the boy's emotional and psychological needs, which had not been properly addressed in the case.

Since 1995, he has also been sharing his judicial duties with his job as chairman of the Scottish Law Commission, the country's law reform body. During that time the commission has produced a number of heavyweight reports on the feudal system, the law of tenement and warrant sales.

As lord justice clerk, Lord Gill will be responsible for setting the tone in criminal sentencing and will no doubt call on his experience in the 1970s as a high court prosecutor when he secured convictions against the murderous Mones, a father and son who both committed triple murders.

DOUGLAS CULLEN

Born November 18, 1935. Son of Sheriff K D Cullen.

Educated Dundee High School, St Andrews and Edinburgh universities. Married with two sons and two daughters.

Called to Scottish bar in 1960, QC in 1973, became a judge in 1986, Lord Justice Clerk in 1997.

Distinguished legal career probably overshadowed by involvement in Piper Alpha disaster, Dunblane shootings and Paddington rail crash inquiries.

Widely admired for his courteous manner and ability to master highly technical details and produce lucid reports, such as 800 pages on Piper Alpha which became North Sea safety ''bible''.

BRIAN GILL

Born February 25, 1942, son of insurance agent.

Educated St Aloysius' College, Glasgow, and Glasgow University.

Called to bar 1967, Crown Office prosecutor 1977-79, took silk 1981.

Appointed a judge in 1994 and since 1995 has combined judicial role with job as chairman of Scottish Law Commission.

Recreation is church music and plays the organ to professional standards.

Has alarmed some Court of Session lawyers with his views that civil actions should be pursued in the lowest appropriate courts. Likely to want to shake up Scotland's civil justice system.