Michael Wolff Dr
Dr. Michael Wolff (Dr. Jur; Mag. Jur; MCJ; FCIArb) was admitted to practice in Australia in 2002 and signed the Victorian Bar Roll in 2008.
Aside from a large and varied construction law practice, Dr. Wolff practices in general commercial litigation with a particular emphasis on contractual disputes, misrepresentation matters, security of payment matters, corporations matters, banking and finance matters, farming litigation and all matters with international aspects, in particular international arbitrations.
He appears regularly in interlocutory hearings and trials in the Federal Court and Supreme Courts throughout Australia, as well as in other courts and tribunals. In particular, he has recently appeared in or is currently briefed in the Court of Appeal in Victoria, the Supreme Court of Victoria, the County Court of Victoria, VCAT, the NSW Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal in Qld, the Qld Supreme Court, the District Court of Qld, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, the Federal Court of Australia in its appellate jurisdiction, the Federal Court of Australia, and the Federal Circuit Court.
A list of examples of current and recent cases is attached below.
Dr. Wolff has practised extensively in jurisdictions outside of Australia, generally appearing in international arbitrations and specializing in finance cases or cases with an Australian connection. He appears in arbitrations in Europe, Asia, the US, and appears in matters in the courts of the USA, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and other jurisdictions.
Aside from his domestic and international arbitration practice, Dr. Wolff is an experienced practitioner in other forms of alternative dispute resolution, having participated in many mediations in most jurisdictions in Australia and in various international jurisdictions. Dr. Wolff became a LEADR accredited mediator in 2008.
Dr. Wolff is on the panel of eligible international arbitrators at various international institutions, including the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre and the Vienna International Arbitration Centre. He has lectured as a Senior Fellow in the LLM program in Melbourne at Monash University in International Arbitration. He is a Fellow of the CIArb. As indicated above, Dr. Wolff also appears regularly in national and international arbitrations as Counsel.
Prior to signing the Bar Roll, Dr. Wolff has held numerous positions for The Coca-Cola Company and its local subsidiaries in Atlanta and Houston, USA; Johannesburg, South Africa; Bangkok, Thailand and New Delhi, India. He holds a Magister Juris from the University of Vienna, a Doctor Juris from the University of Vienna and a Master of Comparative Jurisprudence from New York University. Dr. Wolff is a Fulbright Scholar, and a Fellow of the Institute of Comparative Law at NYU. He was admitted to practice in New York, USA, in 1996.
Dr. Wolff has served three consecutive terms as the Hon. Consul General for the Republic of Austria in Victoria, Australia until 2021.
Outside his career at the Victorian Bar, Dr. Wolff has experience in the world of outdoor exploration. He was the captain of the Austrian team at the 2001 BASE Jumping World Championship. He was part of the team that undertook the first underwater exploration of the geographic North Pole in 1998 in an expedition with the Moscow University Diving Club. He has considerable mountaineering experience (summiting several of the Seven Summits, including Mt. Everest on 13 May 2022). In 2024, he completed first ascents of three previously unclimbed summits in southern Greenland. His exploits have been regularly featured in newspaper and magazine articles as well as in television documentaries, including notably by Servus TV, a part of Red Bull Media House GmbH. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London.
Dr. Wolff was awarded the Cross of Merit in Gold of the Republic of Austria in 2017.