Sara Sandford

Sara Sandford practiced as a transactional attorney for over 30 years in Seattle, Tokyo, and San Francisco, helping clients navigate the challenges of conducting cross-border corporate and commercial transactions.  She is now a qualified mediator with Benchmark National ADR, LLC and Benchmark International ADR, LLC, where she focuses her work on cross-border commercial mediation.

She is also immediate past President and a Director on the Board of the King County Dispute Resolution Center.  She is a past Chair and current Board member of the Japan America Society for the State of Washington. She serves as an Advisory Board member on the University of Washington, School of Law’s Global Business Institute.  She has served in numerous leadership positions during her legal career, including Office Managing Director, Executive Committee Member, and firm ombudsperson for many years.

She has been active in the American Bar Association in a number of roles, including serving as Chair of the ABA International Law Section and Co-Chair of the Section’s International Human Rights and the Asia Pacific Committees.  [She now serves as a Senior Advisor to the ILS International Human Rights Committee, a Director on the Board of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ROLI), as well as being ROLI’s Chair for the Africa Regional Initiative Council.  She has previously served as an Executive Board Member of the ABA Center for Human Rights, ABA’s representative to LawAsia and Chair of ROLI’s Asia Regional Initiative.]

Sara is a frequent speaker on topics related to cross-border matters, including mediation, negotiation, corporate and commercial law, and ethics, and reads, speaks, and writes Japanese, as well as being conversant in Italian.  She received her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and her B.A. from Jackson School of International Affairs, University of Washington.

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