Scotland's foremost military lawyer, Andrew McCartan, died in a car accident on the A9 at Calvine, Perthshire, this week aged 60.
Mr McCartan, who practised law from his base in Forres, Morayshire, for 25 years before moving his firm to Aviemore in 2002, was a colourful and controversial solicitor.
He was a key member of the defence team in the recent Arlene Fraser murder trial, successfully defending Nat Fraser's business colleague, Glenn Lucas.
At the time of his client's first court appearance in Elgin, McCartan famously described the police investigation as ''inadequate'', and that his client was dragged into court to ''paper over the cracks in the case''.
Although he enjoyed success at Sheriff Court level throughout Scotland, a significant part of his work was within the courts martial system.
He recently won a landmark payout for a pregnant woman sacked by the RAF, and was shortly due to defend a number of soldiers from the Black Watch regiment stationed in Germany charged with rioting and mobbing.
In his home county of Moray, he regularly acted for RAF personnel from local bases at RAF Lossiemouth and Kinloss.
Conversely, he was once rapped by the Law Society for repaying an (pounds) 18,500 debt to a client with a dud cheque, and in Elgin Sheriff Court two years ago, was fined (pounds) 100 for failing to turn up for a case.
Uniquely for a Scottish solicitor, over the past three years he has used his fluent French in the international war crimes
trials to act for one of those accused of genocide in Rwanda.
Elgin's Sheriff Ian Cameron, paid tribute to the late solicitor in open court this week. He said the Elgin court will now be a less colourful place.
Educated in a French-speaking school in Australia, before he entered law, Andrew McCartan spent some time in military service. He was once a photographer aboard American bombers as they carpet-bombed parts of Indo-China and Vietnam.
He was a partner with the Forres firm of Mackenzie and Grant until a partnership dispute in 1996 led him to leave and establish his own practice.
He married his second wife, Michaela, last year and moved his busy practice to Aviemore.
The cheroot-smoking solicitor was the Law Society's representative in Moray for a number of years. He was currently the Dean of the Moray Faculty of Solicitors.
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