Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Joe Beltrami was born on 15 May 1932 in Rutherglen, Lanarkshire. He was educated at St Aloycious' College in Glasgow, then studied law at the University of Glasgow and completed a legal apprenticeship with the local firm of Baird Smith Barclay and Muirhead. He set up his own legal firm, Beltrami & Company, in Glasgow in 1958. Willie Dunn joined him as a partner shortly afterwards and the business soon established a large clientele. Beltrami specialised in criminal law and first came to public prominence when he successfully defended Walter Scott Ellis, who was accused of murder in 1961. In a similarly high-profile case, Beltrami defended Patrick Meehan, who was accused and wrongfully convicted of murder in 1969. After a 15-year battle, which also involved a campaign by the television commentator, Ludovic Kennedy, Beltrami and Nicholas Fairbairn succeeded in having Meehan's conviction quashed. Meehan was granted a Royal Pardon and received a large compensation payment and Beltrami subsequently published a book about the case, entitled 'A Deadly Innocence'. Beltrami was also known for representing Arthur Thompson, the self-styled Glasgow gangster, for over four decades. In 1993 he became the first Solicitor-Advocate to plead in the Court of Criminal Appeal. He died in Glasgow on 24 February 2015.
Places
Glasgow, Scotland
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
ISAAR(CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families, International Council on Archives (2nd edition, 2003); Rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names, National Council on Archives (1997).
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Created by Anne Cameron, February 2019.
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Alasdair Steven, 'Obituary: Joseph Beltrami, SSC, BL, Lawyer', in The Scotsman, 25 February 2015 < https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-joseph-beltrami-ssc-bl-lawyer-1-3700451>, accessed February 2019.