Character Information

Gender		Male
Species		Vulcan
Age		148

Physical Appearance

Height		6'4"
Weight		150 lbs
Hair Color		Black
Eye Color		Brown
Physical Description		Admiral Sotas is tall and thin. His black hair is graying at the temples, and his ears are larger than average. He is always impeccably neat and walks with a purposeful, military air. His voice is quite stentorian for a Vulcan, and he is an expert at public speaking. Like all Vulcans, he rigidly suppresses his emotions, often appearing cold and aloof.

Family

Spouse		None
Children		None
Father		Stov, deceased
Mother		T'sas, deceased
Other Family		None. It is a source of some regret to Admiral Sotas that he, an only child, never had children. He feels somewhat guilty (illogical as it is) at allowing his father's line to die out.

Personality & Traits

General Overview		From the judgements he's delivered over the years, Admiral Sotas has the unenviable reputation of being an inhuman brute who is more concerned with the letter of the law than the spirit of it. As he himself will tell you, it's true (apart from being a brute). Sotas believes that the spirit of the law is in the laid-down words, and those words must be examined and interpreted clinically based on their original meaning, not reinterpreted according to what fits the possibly-extenuating circumstances of the case in question. He strongly argues that, by reinterpreting original law codes, the Federation runs the risk of diluting the law, making it weak and pliable instead of strong and rigid. Sotas has been living on Earth for a long time, but dislikes the planet, especially its crowded cities. When he is off-duty he tries to spend his time camping in one of Earth's many deserts, or at least get as far from the madding crowd as possible. On-duty, he is a careful speaker, renowned for his brilliantly analytical and utterly impartial mind. He appears cold and aloof, but that seems to be the norm for many Vulcans. In short, Sotas is a closed book, private and impersonal. He never talks about himself to any of his staff - in fact, he has no relationships with anyone except working relationships. Sotas also supports the curbing of Human power in the Federation. He argues that Humans should have volunteered to give up their Council seat before it was voted on. While he admires Humanity for its drive, he thinks that Humans leave too much chaos in their wake, and need to 'take a break' from intergalactic politics.
Strengths & Weaknesses		Sotas is perfect for the job of Judge Advocate General because of his analytical mind. He has been a lawyer for over a century now, and is vastly experienced. He is also a capable, if somewhat rigid, administrator. Before his accession to his position, the JAG office was dominated by Neo-Essentialist Humans, and Sotas is determined to completely reshape it. His rigidity can occasionally be a weakness. In a world of black-and-whites, Sotas is incapable of seeing the grays, and his previous judgements have appeared harsh and uncompromising. He is running the risk of being remembered as a 'bad' judge instead of a 'good' one.
Ambitions		Sotas has no ambitions, other than to do the best job he can with the resources at his disposal.
Hobbies & Interests		Aside from reading legal journals and brushing up on historical cases, Sotas regularly goes camping in isolated places. He is in late middle age for a Vulcan, and does not expect to be doing this forever, but he has decided that he will probably retire once he is no longer able to have his own 'head space'.

Personal History		Born on Vulcan, Sotas was noted in hs early years for having a keenly analytical mind. It was expected that he might become a doctor or scientist, but he surprised his parents by electing to become a lawyer and enter Starfleet. Nevertheless, they supported him in his choice. Sotas has not had a typical Starfleet career. As a JAG officer, he has spent all his time in JAG offices in Starbases or on various planets. The only time he has seen the inside of a starship was when he was travelling to and from his duty posts. This has led to some resentment towards him over the years -how can someone who has never served out in the long night make any sort of informed judgements about life on a starship? After 18 years of working in various JAG offices, Sotas was attached to the Federation's Diplomatic Corps and began to move into sector management, becoming a judge and being responsible for hundreds of cases at a time. He quickly gained a reputation as a hardline rules lawyer, refusing to brook any attempt at reinterpreting laws to account for extenuating circumstances. He then spent 20 years as a JAG prosecutor, taking accused Starfleet officers to task for their crimes. In practice, these were few and far between, and he then moved into Starfleet Command as a judge on various Boards. In 2413 he was involved in a far-reaching case involving the Prime Directive. A Human Starfleet officer, one Commander Donna Langstrom, was working on Goran III as an anthropologist, observing the pre-warp civilisation there. The Goranians had just achived their Industrial Revolution, and the arts and sciences were flourishing on their world. Commander Langstrom worked on that world for eleven years, hidden in a cloaked bunker in the windswept hills near a large city. She kept meticulous records of her subjects, gave them names, and recorded her sorrows and joys in her personal logs as the Goranians lived and died. One day, a Kem D'Neel starship appeared in orbit and began to exterminate the Goranians. Desperate to protect the family she was observing, Commander Langstrom beamed seven Goranians into the relative safety of her bunker, directly revealing her existence to them. The Kem D'Neel laid waste to Goran III, almost completely erasing the Goranians from existence, before suddenly leaving. Commander Langstrom explained to the Goranians what was happening, and beamed them home to the shattered ruins of their civilisation before reporting in to Starfleet. She was subsequently prosecuted for violating the Prime Directive, and Sotas was selected as the case judge. Sotas judged Commander Langstrom harshly. He found her guilty on all counts of violating the Prime Directive and ordered that she be stripped of her rank and dishonourably discharged from Starfleet in a ruling that sent shockwaves through the fleet. In his ruling. Sotas judged that, even though the Kem D'Neel had precipitated the Goranians' First Contact with alien life, Commander Langstrom had compounded that effect by revealing the existence of the Federation and transporter technology to her subjects. The fact that Commander Langstrom was trying to save the lives of her Goranian subjects, and possibly save the species from extinction, was given short shrift. In his ruling, Sotas directly stated that the correct course of action would have been to allow the Goranian civilisation to be exterminated, and that the Prime Directive was inviolable under any circumstances, which made media headlines around the Federation and forced Sotas before a JAG board to explain his ruling. It was a testament to his powers of debate that they ultimately agreed with his reasoning and reinstated him. The Langstrom ruling remains in force in Starfleet to this day. With Sotas as the fleet's JAG officer, he has made it clear that a cavalier attitude towards both the Prime Directive and any of Starfleet's laws and regulations will not be tolerated. When Richard Edgerton's Neo-Essentialists came to power in the Federation, Sotas had been a Commodore for just over 60 years, and had been unsuccessful in his applications to be promoted to higher office, perhaps as a result of the controversial Langstrom ruling. He remained untouched by the Neo-Essentialists while they were in power - perhaps as a tribute to his formidable legal mien, they decided it was not in their interests to hold a hearing that dismissed him from his office. Following the collapse of the Neo-Essentialist regime in 2431, Sotas was finally promoted to Admiral and became the Judge Advocate General of Starfleet.
Service Record		2289 - born in the city of K'Lan-ne on Vulcan 2317 - enters Starfleet Academy 2322 - graduates Starfleet Academy, promoted to Ensign 2323 - assigned to JAG office on Starbase 12 2327 - assigned to JAG office on Starbase 75, promoted to Lieutenant JG 2331 - assigned to JAG office on Trill, promoted to Lieutenant 2335 - assigned to JAG office on Starbase 33, promoted to Lieutenant Commander 2339 - assigned to JAG office on Starbase 71 2341 - assigned to Federation Diplomatic Corps as JAG liaison staff 2343 - promoted to Commander 2346 - assigned to Starbase 45 as Deputy Sector JAG officer 2349 - assigned to Starfleet JAG's Ethics Board 2353 - assigned to Starfleet Academy as Instructor, promoted to Captain 2358 - assigned to Starfleet Academy as Appeals Arbiter 2361 - assigned to Betazed as Sector JAG officer 2364 - assigned to Starbase 4 as Sector JAG officer 2368 - assigned to Earth as Sector JAG officer, promoted to Commodore 2373 - assigned to Federation Oversight Committee as Starfleet Legal Counsel 2376 - assigned to Federation Public Accounts Committee as Starfleet Legal Counsel 2380 - assigned to Starfleet Command as Starfleet Prosecutor 2400 - assigned to Starfleet Command as member of JAG Judicial Board 2410 - assigned to Starfleet Command as member of JAG Board of Inquiry 2413 - Starfleet vs. Cmdr. Donna Langstrom landmark ruling 2420 - assigned to Starfleet Command as Deputy Judge Advocate General 2431 - assigned to Starfleet Command as Judge Advocate General, promoted to Rear Admiral