He was junior defence counsel for Abdelbaset al-Megrahi under William Taylor KC during the Lockerbie trial at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands in 2000.
[4] Following the resignation of Colin Boyd as Lord Advocate, Solicitor General Elish Angiolini was nominated for the post by First Minister Jack McConnell.
The nomination was met with some criticism due to Beckett's membership of the Labour Party,[3] but was ultimately approved by the Scottish Parliament on 5 October 2006.
Beckett, along with Angiolini, was sworn in at the Court of Session in Edinburgh on 12 October 2006 and appointed by the Queen under the royal warrant.
[11] It was announced in June 2023 that Beckett had been appointed to the Second Division of the Inner House of the Court of Session with effect from 1 July 2023.