Former New Zealand lawyer Sarah Grimmer has been appointed the new Secretary General for the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center, effective from September 2016.

 
Sarah Grimmer. 

After graduating from Victoria University of Wellington with an LLB and BA, Ms Grimmer completed an LLM at Cambridge University. She began her legal career in private practice in New Zealand in 1999.

Between 2002 and 2006 she was based in Paris, serving as Assistant Counsel at the ICC International Court of Arbitration and in the International Arbitration Group of Shearman and Sterling LLP.

She left to serve as Senior Legal Counsel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague, where she has remained until her latest appointment. 

Ms Grimmer has acted as registrar in three inter-State arbitrations under the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention and has been appointed tribunal secretary in multiple investor-State arbitrations and contract-based disputes.