Lady Wolffe to leave the bench for Strathclyde chair

Court of Session judge Lady Wolffe is stepping down from the bench in order to join the University of Strathclyde's Law School as a Professor of Practice. She will also hold an honorary professorship at the University of Edinburgh.

Lady Wolffe (Sarah P L Wolffe QC) was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice in 2014, and in 2016 became the first woman to be appointed to the Commercial Court. She has had a legal career spanning nearly 30 years, with a particular focus on commercial law. After studying at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, the University of Edinburgh and Balliol College, Oxford, she qualified as a solicitor in Scotland in 1992, was called to the bar in 1994 and took silk in 2008.

She takes up her post at Strathclyde as Professor Wolffe on 20 September, and intends to pursue research and writing on civil justice and commercial law as well as teaching. She said: “I am looking forward to taking up the invitations from Strathclyde University and Edinburgh University and to the opportunity which this will provide not only to pursue academic work in two world-renowned centres of legal learning but to contribute to the education of future lawyers.”

Professor Claire McDiarmid, head of Strathclyde Law School, commented: "We have great pleasure in welcoming Professor Wolffe to Strathclyde. She is a vastly experienced legal professional who has practised law at the very highest level at the bar and as a judge. Her knowledge and expertise of the law and its application in practice will be an immense asset to Strathclyde Law School and will be greatly beneficial to our staff and students."