Sheriff Principal Aisha Anwar

Aisha Anwar was appointed Sheriff Principal of South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway in 2020 and was appointed Sheriff Principal of Glasgow and Strathkelvin in March 2023.

She was appointed as a part-time sheriff in 2011 and as a sheriff at Glasgow Sheriff Court in 2014 where she was a designated family law and commercial law sheriff.

She graduated with an LLB Hons from the University of Edinburgh in 1996 and a Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford in 1998.

She joined Maclay Murray and Spens in 1998 as a trainee, was admitted as a solicitor in 2000 and became an associate in 2003. From 2009 to 2012 she became a partner and head of litigation for Scotland in a global law firm.

She co-authored the Civil Bench Book for Sheriffs on behalf of the Judicial Institute and is a contributor to the new edition of Macphail on Sheriff Court Practice.

In 2017, Sheriff Anwar’s letter to the children involved in a contact dispute, which explained her decision in plain simple language, attracted a great deal of interest (Patrick v Patrick), being described as “the Scottish Courts at their best”. The letter featured in a performance of Letters Live, during the Edinburgh International Festival.