Dr h.c. Wolfgang Schomburg was the first German judge at an International Criminal Court, here for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, from November 2001 to November 2008. Appointed as a member of the Appeals Chamber, he also became a judge at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, in 2004.

He studied law at the Free University of Berlin, where he also passed the 2nd State Examination in Law. He began his legal career as a public prosecutor, then as a judge and senior public prosecutor for white-collar crime in Berlin. He also held the position of State Secretary in the Berlin Senate Department for Justice, particularly at the time of reunification.

From 1995 to 2000, he was a judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe.

In March 2008, he was honoured with the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

From 2009 to 2014 he was Of Counsel at FPS-Berlin, then from 2014 to 2022 Of Counsel at the Munich law firm Ufer Knauer in its Berlin branch. He was also appointed Honorary Professor of Law at Durham University (United Kingdom), where he taught International Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters and International Criminal Law. In 2013, he was awarded the title of ‘Doctor of Civil Law’ h.c. by this university.

His clients as a lawyer included large international commercial enterprises in East and West Germany and countless private individuals, whom he protected from (mostly) unauthorised cross-border legal assistance, in particular from the threat of extradition. His publicly known clients have included the Catalan President Carles Puigdemont i Casamajo, lawyer Prof Dr Wolfgang Vogel, Prime Minister Manfred Stolpe and the US director Laura Poitras (Citizenfour = Edward Snowden).