PDFAreas of expertise
Professional information
2014: Appointed a Judge of the Court of Session, appointed Commercial Judge (2016-2017, and 2018-2021), and in that role, also appointed as Arbitration, Insolvency Judge,
1994-2014: Practised at the Bar in Scotland (QC 2008)
1989: LLB with Distinction, University of Edinburgh,
1984: BA (summa cum laude & Phi Bet Kappa), Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA.
Current appointments
• President of the Court of the Scottish Arbitration Centre,
• Senior Legal Chair, Discipline Tribunals of the Financial Reporting Council (2022-ongoing),
• Honorary Chair, Edinburgh Centre for Commercial Law, Edinburgh University (2019-ongoing),
• Honorary Professor, University of Edinburgh (2021-ongoing) (Commercial Law),
• Professor of Practice, University of Strathclyde (2021-ongoing) (Commercial, Dispute Resolution, Financial Regulation, International Business Law),
• Member, Executive Committee, Conference on European and Restricting Law (‘CERIL’, an independent invitation-only body promoting reform of EU insolvency law (2020-ongoing).
Sarah Wolffe is a member of Axiom, accepting arbitral appointments and opinion work.
Appointed to the Court of Session bench in 2014, Sarah sat as one of the specialist Commercial Judges for a total of 5 years (2016-17, 2018-2021). This included sitting as an insolvency judge and as an arbitration judge for those years, dealing with cases under the Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010. As senior counsel, she was also involved in some of the earliest cases coming to the Court of Session under the 2010 Act. In 2023 Sarah was appointed as the President of the Court of the Scottish Arbitration Centre (‘SAC’). In that capacity, she has also contributed to training days under the auspices of the SAC.
Publications (academic and professional) (Forthcoming and past)Scottish contributor to McGillivray on Insurance Law (numerous editions, 16th forthcoming).
Forthcoming: a chapter in each of the following multi-author volumes:
(i) Development of the Commercial Law in Scotland, volume 1 (Edinburgh University Press),
(ii) Scots and Scots Law Influence on the EU Judiciary (Radboud University Press, Nijmegen, NL), and
(iii) Women, Law and Legal Work in Scotland: Dialogues about our Past, Present and Future (Edinburgh University Press).
Past publications include:
(i) Green’s Annotated Rules of the Court of Session 1994, contributor,
(ii) Mithani on Directors’ Disqualification, Scottish contributor (two editions),
(iii) ‘Judicial and Other Remedies’, Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia, co-author (with Lord Dervaird).