 He became Lord President Reid Professor of Law in 1994 and held the chair until his retirement in 2016 when he became Professor Emeritus.He has published widely on commercial law, property law, trusts, insolvency law, comparative law and legal history; he is a Solicitor, a Notary Public and a Writer to the Signet.He is the author of several textbooks on conveyancing (co-written with former Scottish Law Commissioner, Professor Kenneth Reid); property, trusts and succession law (co-written with former Scottish Law Commissioner, Dr Andrew J M Steven), the law of inhibitions and adjudications (the diligences, or mechanisms for enforcing judgments, affecting land in Scotland); and searches.