Katrina Dawson Award 2020

12/08/2020

Diversity

The Bar Association is delighted to announce Kathleen Heath as the recipient of the Katrina Dawson Award for 2020.

Kathleen has an abiding interest in access to justice and public interest cases. Between 2016 and 2020 she served as a lawyer at the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (ALSWA). In 2018 she received the annual Hodge Award from the Criminal Lawyers’ Association of WA, in recognition of her contribution as a young lawyer to the practice of criminal law in WA. Prior to ALSWA, Kathleen had volunteered with organisations in both Australia and the United States, among them: ArchCity Defenders and the National Lawyers Guild (St Louis); the Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana (New Orleans); the NSW Public Defenders Office; and the Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Legal Service. In 2019, Kathleen captained a joint team of police, prosecutors and defence lawyers to compete in the Rottnest Channel Swim to raise money for a justice reinvestment project.

“As a barrister, I hope to show leadership in this regard by taking on pro bono and public interest cases, and continuing to serve my clients with compassion and diligence”, she said. Kathleen graduated from the University of Sydney with a combined Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Economics and Social Sciences. She was awarded the University Medal in Law, and placed first in Equity, Corporations Law, Jurisprudence and Advanced Criminal Law. She wrote her honours thesis on the Doctrine of Sham under the supervision of the Honourable Justice Mark Leeming. She was a member of the University of Sydney’s Jessup Moot team that won the Australian Rounds of the 2013 competition, and named Best Oralist in the Grand Final. She received a Fulbright Scholarship and a Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship, with which she completed a Master of Laws at Harvard Law School, with a focus on criminal law and was awarded the Scholar’s Prize in Criminal Justice Policy.

In 2014 and 2015, Kathleen worked as tipstaff to Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC, Governor of NSW, when she was President of the NSW Court of Appeal.

Kathleen is already conscious of the importance of collegiality in the legal profession generally and at the New South Wales Bar in particular.

She has presented at a number of events, including for the National Association of Community Legal Centres and the Piddington Society. She also helped to start a “Case Club” – a group of young lawyers that meet once a month to read and discuss significant recent cases. ‘I appreciate the collegiality that these professional organisations foster’.

‘Many barristers have been generous with their time and advice as I’ve prepared to come to the Bar, and I hope to be in position to pay forward their kindness to new barristers in the future’, Kathleen said.

Kathleen passed the Bar Exam in February 2020 and is enrolled in the September 2020 Bar Practice Course. She has accepted a position as a reader at Maurice Byers Chambers.

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