Judge Sarah Sharer Curley currently serves on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Arizona, having been appointed in 2000 by the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to a second 14-year term. During her term as the Chief Judge of the Arizona Bankruptcy Court, from 2001-2005, she implemented strategic planning for the Court, assisted in the opening of a self-help center at the Court for pro se litigants, and led the Court group in the renovation of the courthouses in Phoenix and Tucson. Judge Curley completed two terms on the 9^th Circuit’s Bankruptcy Education Committee (2001-2007; Chair, 2003-2004), and has more than 80 published decisions covering complex bankruptcy issues.

Judge Curley is active in the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ), having previously served as the Vice President of Districts, Chair of the Finance Committee (2005-2007), a Director (2003-2005), and as Treasurer (2002 - 2003). In 2007, she received the first NAWJ Justice Vaino Spencer Leadership Award for her innovative ideas in the program and finance areas. She also received the NAWJ Lexis/Nexis Scholarship Award for best new project proposal in October 2003, which led to the electronic and hard-copy publication of a book which focuses on practical solutions to bankruptcy issues frequently confronted by federal and state non-bankruptcy judges and lawyers. Active in the ABA’s Judicial Division, Judge Curley served as the Division’s liaison to the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, and in 2005, she became the first Co-Chair of the newly created Bench-Bar Bankruptcy Council, serving as its Vice Chair in 2006-2007. In 2007, she became a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. 

Previously, Judge Curley was a member of the Lorna Lockwood Inn of Court in Phoenix, and she has been a member of the Arizona Women Lawyers Association for many years, receiving the Maricopa Chapter Award for her professional achievements, her contribution to the legal profession, and her advancement of women in the profession in November 2005. Prior to her relocation to Arizona, she was a senior-level counsel for First Wisconsin Corporation in Milwaukee, and an associate attorney with Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen in New York City, concentrating in the areas of bankruptcy and complex litigation.