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Monday, 29 August 2016

2016 ACT Young Lawyer of the Year

Katrina Marson was presented with the 2016 ACT Young Lawyer of the Year Award by the chair of the judging panel, the Hon Justice Michael Elkaim of the ACT Supreme Court, at the Law Society’s Annual Dinner on Friday 26 August. The Award recognises the professional achievements and community involvement of outstanding young lawyers in the region.

Katrina's particular passion is for criminal law. In her final year of university she was the recipient of the Maree Ayers Prize for Criminal Justice, and completed her Honours thesis on the topic of sexual assault law reform. She was awarded the Tillyard Prize in 2012 in recognition of her role in founding and running ANU Volunteers. In 2013 she was named the ANU's Student of the Year.

Katrina joined the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions as a prosecutor in 2012, and her most recent role there was as a family violence prosecutor. She has delivered training to AFP officers in relation to the new Family Violence Evidence in Chief Interview law reforms, and she represented the ACT DPP at a range of family violence and sexual assault fora.

Katrina recently commenced a secondment to Legal Aid ACT's criminal practice, representing the most vulnerable members of the community. She also tutors in Evidence Law at the ANU, and organises the annual ACT DPP Mock Trial during Law Week.

A strong supporter of new policy initiatives and innovative progression in the criminal justice system, she has helped to raise awareness of issues around sexual assault and family violence within the criminal justice system. She has published articles on the use of expert evidence about the 'freeze response' in a sexual assault trial in the ACT, and reforms to the legal definition of family violence in ACT Legislation.

Outside of her work within the legal profession, she is heavily involved in the community. She has sat on the Governance Committee of the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre since 2012. She is a co-founder and director of the Pillow Talk Project, a business venture which delivers training to young people on issues of consent, relationships, and ethical behaviour.

Despite having been admitted as a lawyer for less than three years, she has run dozens of hearings in the Magistrates Court, and has instructed in several serious matters in the ACT Supreme Court, including high profile and complex murder and sexual assault trials.

Katrina has spent most of her legal career as a prosecutor, and more than a year of that time in the family violence unit. In her words: "Success as a prosecutor must never be measured in number of matters 'won'. Rather, I believe my achievement as a family violence prosecutor was in giving a voice to those victims within the criminal justice system, and adequately representing the community interest in stemming the epidemic of family violence."

The ACT Law Society commends Katrina for her contributions to the legal profession and the Canberra community.


For further information contact:
Mr Martin Hockridge, President, ACT Law Society, M 0405 064 541