He is the author of several works including Agricultural Tenancies, and is general editor of The Scottish Planning Encyclopedia.

Gill was born in Riddrie, in northeast Glasgow, and educated at St Aloysius' College, an independent Jesuit school in the city.

), where he was a member of the Glasgow University Union and Dialectic Society, and at Edinburgh where he gained his PhD in 1975[3] and lectured in the Faculty of Law from 1964 until 1977.

[4] In this capacity he was directly responsible for reorganising the production of wide-ranging legal studies and reports, legislative programmes and completion of projects outstanding from before his appointment.

[24] The proposals were widely publicised, as was Lord Gill's view that the court system was failing society and could be described as "outdated, expensive, unpredictable and inefficient.

"[25] The Faculty of Advocates during the consultation "strongly opposed" the suggested changes limiting access to the higher courts.

[26] Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill supported the ensuing recommendations, but Lord President Hamilton was more cautious and emphasised that the judges did not in his view necessarily agree with everything in the report.

First Minister Alex Salmond endorsed Lord Gill's "commitment to reform and modernisation.

"[28] In 2013 the Scottish Civil Justice Council came into existence, tasked amongst other things with the creation of new court rules.

It was passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament, and was recognised as "an important milestone" to ensure the system was "fit for the 21st century" (Kenny MacAskill).

[32] In addition, specialisation was given a statutory basis so that family law, commercial and other specialisms could receive more expert judicial handling.

[33] Applications for judicial review (challenging administrative decisions) were to be subjected to a new 3 months time limit.

Lord Gill (2016) 2 volumes [44] This book in 2017 won an award for excellence from the Comité Européen de Droit Rural/European Council for Rural Law (CEDR).

[45] In July 2019 Lord Gill donated to the Scottish Land Court his extensive collection of agricultural texts and specialist law reports.

[53] He was Governor and Chairman of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama of which he is a Fellow, and from which he received an Honorary Doctorate.

[55] Lord Gill also created several choral compositions specially for performances by the Faculty of Advocates Choir.

[58] He is an Elected Life Member of the American Law Institute,[59] and a Fellow of the Society of Writers to the Signet.

The Faculty of Advocates in 2013 commissioned from Mark Roscoe a large oil painted portrait of a group of lawyers and judges presided over by Lord Gill.