He was Solicitor General for Scotland from 1992 until his appointment in 1995 as a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland, and held this post until his death in 2007.
He lectured at the University of Dundee from 1971 to 1974, and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1973, becoming Queen's Counsel in 1986.
[1] Dawson practised as an Advocate Depute from 1983 to 1987, prosecuting criminal cases on behalf of the Lord Advocate, and was counsel to the 1988 Piper Alpha Inquiry.
He was succeeded as Solicitor General by Donald Mackay, who would only months later become Lord Advocate.
A 2008 investigation by the Sunday Times found Dawson had the second highest rate of having his sentences or convictions overturned on appeal, with thirty successful appeals against sentence and three against conviction in the past five years.