Dame Catherine Fiona Woolf, is a British corporate lawyer. She served as the Lord Mayor of London, acting as global ambassador for UK-based financial and business services. She has held and still holds many other significant positions in the City of London.
Woolf qualified as a solicitor in 1973 and worked as an assistant at Clifford Chance until 1978. She then moved to CMS Cameron McKenna where she became the firm's first female partner in 1981; she remained a partner until 2004. A specialist legal advisor on major infrastructure developments, particularly with regard to infrastructure legislation and energy markets, Woolf played a role in the 1985 treaty agreements between the British and French governments concerning the Channel Tunnel. She subsequently went on to work with almost 30 governments around the world. She was a consultant to CMS Cameron McKenna and is a Senior Adviser to London Economics International LLC. In 2001–02 Woolf was awarded a Senior Fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Business and Government. While at Harvard, she wrote a book on attracting investment in electricity transmission systems: Global Transmission Expansion: Recipes for Success. Woolf is an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple, a life position which recognises contributions to the legal profession.
Woolf served as president of the Law Society of England and Wales for 2006–07. In her valedictory speech on stepping down, she said that in her year as President she had met with "98 of the top 100 firms and another 25 or so beyond that". She was "delighted to have met with so many top firms...they had a huge number of ideas about what we should be doing for them".
On 29 September 2013, she was elected as Lord Mayor of London, only the second time in its 800-year history that a woman has held this office. She succeeded Sir Roger Gifford as Lord Mayor on 8 November 2013 during the annual "Silent Ceremony" at the Guildhall. The City's second female Lord Mayor, following Dame Mary Donaldson, Woolf was interviewed by Cathy Newman for a Daily Telegraph profile article, taking the opportunity to promote one of her mayoral campaigning themes, namely the furtherance of women in executive careers and the correction of the traditional imbalance between the sexes in senior City positions. She sponsored a Long Finance initiative during her year as Lord Mayor, "Financing Tomorrow's Cities", which examined new mechanisms for funding sustainability. She made regular media appearances about the Lord Mayor's role in welcoming the world to London, and ventured onto a catwalk at the Old Bailey during London Fashion Week.
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She was the Chancellor of the University of Law 2014–2018. She was a member of the Competition Commission 2005–2013, Alderman for the Ward of Candlewick in the City of London 2007–2018, and was Sheriff of London for 2010 – 2011. Woolf was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, in March 2016. She is a Trustee of the Science Museum and Honorary President of the Aldersgate Group
On 5 September 2014 it was announced that Woolf would chair the independent panel inquiry that would examine how the UK's institutions have handled their duties to protect children from sexual abuse. On 21 October 2014, Woolf disclosed that she lived in the same London street as Lord Brittan and had invited the Conservative peer and his wife, Diana Brittan, to dinner on three occasions. Lord Brittan had been Home Secretary in 1984 when ministers were handed a dossier on alleged high-profile paedophiles; he has insisted that the proper procedures were followed. In total, she had dined with Lord Brittan and his family five times since 2008, and also had joined Lady Brittan for coffee on a "small number of occasions". Woolf further disclosed that she had been involved in the past with bodies with which the Brittans had also had involvement. The BBC reported that survivors of child abuse were increasingly concerned about her apparent links to Lord Brittan, and Labour MP Simon Danczuk, who campaigned for the inquiry, said he thought Woolf should resign. Woolf made the disclosures to MPs ahead of her appearance before the Home Affairs Select Committee, saying she was aware of "speculation gaining traction on social media" about her links with the Brittans and she wanted to: On 22 October, the BBC reported that it had seen a judicial review application launched by a victim of historical child sexual abuse which challenged the choice of Woolf as the chair of this inquiry on the basis that she was not impartial, had no relevant expertise and might not have time to discharge her duties. The judicial review hearing could have been held before the end of 2014. On 31 October 2014, she resigned her chairmanship of the panel.
