From 1971 to 1973, Macphail served as Standing Junior Counsel to Scottish Home and Health Department and the Department of Health and Social Security. In 1973, he served briefly as an Extra Advocate-Depute, and the same year was appointed a Sheriff of Lanarkshire (later Glasgow and Strathkelvin), based in Glasgow. From 1978 to 1981, he was Chairman of the Scottish Association for the Study of Delinquency. In 1981, he moved to the Sheriffdom of Tayside, Central and Fife, based at Alloa, and in 1982 to Lothian and Borders, based at Linlithgow. He served there until 1989, when he took up office as a Law Commissioner, and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1990. Following completion of his term in 1994, he returned to the shrieval bench at Linlithgow in 1995, and was appointed Sheriff Principal of Lothian and Borders, and Sheriff of Chancery, in 2002.[1][2]
The Laws of Scotland: Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia, 1990 (Law Society of Scotland), Vol. 10, Title on Evidence
Personal life
Lord Macphail married Rosslyn Graham Lillias in 1970, with whom he had a son and a daughter. He was a Commissioner of the Northern Lighthouse Board between 2002 and 2005. He received an honoraryLL.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 1992. He was a member of the New Club. Lord Macphail died after a long illness on 21 October 2009.