Sarah N. Welling is an Ashland-Spears Distinguished Research Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky. She teaches Criminal Law, Federal Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure.
Her primary research interest is federal criminal law, particularly money laundering. She has spoken on federal criminal law in Poland, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China. On money laundering, she has consulted with Congress and the CIA, served as a team leader in a RAND exercise, and been quoted by the New York Times.
Sarah’s most recent books are Wright & Welling, Federal Practice and Procedure (formerly known as Wright & Miller), Volumes 3 and 3A (4th ed. 2010) covering Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure 31-42. In 2011, the Supreme Court cited the discussion of § 2255 habeas corpus actions. In addition, Sarah is the lead author of Federal Criminal Law and Related Actions: Crimes, RICO, Forfeiture and the False Claims Act, a two-volume treatise co-authored with Professors Sara Sun Beale and Pamela Bucy Pierson, published by West Group in 1998.
Her articles have appeared in Hastings Law Journal, Notre Dame Law Review, Washington University Law Review, and William & Mary Law Review.
Sarah was elected to the American Law Institute in 2008. She is active as a consultant for Model Penal Code-Sentencing, Model Penal Code-Sexual Assault, and Principles of Government Ethics. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Sarah has been the Reporter for the Sixth Circuit Pattern Criminal Jury Instructions since 1999.
She joined the faculty in 1981 after clerking for then-District Court Judge Eugene E. Siler, Jr. and practicing for two years at a large firm in Chicago.