William James Cullen, Lord Cullen

In 1884, Cullen joined the company of J & F Adam^[1] as a writer to the signet,^[3] a specialist form of solicitor. He switched to the other branch of the legal profession, and was admitted as an advocate in 1891.^[3] He built his reputation specialising in the law of conveyancing, land and inheritance,^[1] and took silk in 1905.^[5]

From 1905 to 1906, Cullen worked as an advocate depute, a junior prosecutor.^[3] In July 1906, he was appointed as Sheriff of Fife and Kinross, replacing the deceased Robert Younger KC.^[6] In April 1907 he became an unpaid Commissioner For Lunacy,^[7] and in 1909 he was raised to the bench as a Senator of the College of Justice with the judicial title of Lord Cullen,^[3] filling the vacancy caused the resignation of Lord Pearson.^[8]

An unflamboyant judge who disliked public speaking and avoided ceremonies where possible,^[1] Cullen was promoted in 1918 to the Inner House, where he sat in the Valuation Appeal Court.^[1] He resigned from the court in 1925, and his seat was given to David Fleming KC, who became Lord Fleming.^[9]

In 1888, Cullen married Grace Rutherfurd Clark (1864-1943), from Manchester.^[3] They had one daughter, and two sons:^[1] Kenneth Douglas Cullen (born 1889), who became an advocate in 1919;^[10] and William Geoffrey Langley Cullen (1894-1915) who died whilst serving as a second lieutenant in the Royal Scots during the First World War.^[11][12]

He died at his home 18 Grosvenor Crescent^[13] in Edinburgh on 19 June 1941, aged 81.^[1]

He is buried in Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh beneath a simple white cross in the south-west section (to the north of the huge Buchanan monument).