Kate’s career has started in corporate law where she developed both technical and soft skills in a leading legal practice. She has litigious experience in both large-scale litigation as well as shorter, sharper disputes. She has worked with senior and junior counsel on commercial and pro bono matters in various forums (e.g. Supreme Court, the AAT and NCAT), and has prepared evidence for presentation in those forums. She also has experience advising clients on commercial transactions and regulatory regimes relating to technology, media and telecommunications.

Kate was the Pro Bono Coordinator of Allens’ Sydney office, where she worked in collaboration with the Head of Pro Bono to develop and maintain networks with pro bono clients and related stakeholders in New South Wales. She was responsible for identifying pro bono opportunities and responding to pro bono requests. Kate facilitated assistance for a number of clients and coordinated a variety of legal projects in this role. This included Allens’ assistance of the Refugee & Advice Casework Service’s (RACS) Offshore Humanitarian Visa Program, which was established in response to the 2021 crisis in Afghanistan. This involved: coordinating more than 100 lawyers over several months, instructing lawyers to conduct advice calls and prepare visa applications, responding to lawyers’ questions, creating an online resource for instructions, FAQs and other key resources, and liaising closely with RACS. During Kate’s oversight of this project, Allens lawyers assisted over 600 people seeking humanitarian visa assistance.

Kate has a rich experience of pro bono case work. Highlights include:

• Participating in the Public Interest Advocacy Centre’s Homeless Persons Legal Service clinic, which involves providing pro bono legal services to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness; and
• Representing pro bono clients in NCAT proceedings against the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages in a matter concerning LGBTQI+ rights and the rights of transgender people: FJG v Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages [2022] NSWCATAD 116.

Kate, who is a proud Dharug woman, is also the Chairperson of Ngalaya Indigenous Corporation, the peak body for First Nations’ lawyers and law students across what is now called New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

Recognition

Awards

The Donald Horne Prize for the best performance in Politics, UNSW 2017

Sponsorship from UNSW to attend the World Indigenous Legal Conference in Irvine, California 2016