William Adam Wilson FRSE (28 July 1928 - 14 March 1994) was a Scottish lawyer who served as Professor of Scots Law at the University of Edinburgh. As an author he was known as W. A. Wilson and informally as Bill Wilson.
The University of Edinburgh's W. A. Wilson Memorial Lecture, inaugurated in 1995, is named in his honour.[1]
Wilson was born in Glasgow on 28 July 1928 the son of Anne Adam and Hugh Wilson, her husband. He was educated at Hillhead High School.
He studied law at the University of Glasgow, graduating in 1948 with an MA and again in 1951 with an LLB. He practiced as a solicitor for several years before becoming a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh in 1960. In 1965, he was made a senior lecturer. In 1972, he became the first Lord President Reid Professor of Law at the University. He became Dean of the Law Faculty in 1976.[2]
In 1991 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Neil MacCormick, Kemp Davidson, Lord Davidson, Michael Yeoman, and John Terence Coppock.[3]
He died in Edinburgh of cancer on 14 March 1994.[4]