Date & time
Venue
Phillipa Weeks Staff Library, ANU Law School
Register for the event
Event description
Join us for an engaging and informative session with Associate Professor Heather Roberts FAAL and the Hon Justice Dina Yehia, Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
Hosted by the ANU/National Judicial College of Australia’s Visiting Judges program, Associate Professor Roberts will lead an informal chat with Justice Yehia about her career and experiences.
This forum is exclusively open to current law students, and promises to provide valuable insights into the legal profession. Register today as spaces are limited.
Speakers
The Hon Justice Dina Yehia
The Honourable Justice Yehia graduated with a Bachelor of Arts/Law from the University of NSW and subsequently completed a Masters in International Criminal Law at Sydney University.
Her Honour was admitted as a solicitor in 1989 and worked with the Western Aboriginal Legal Service from December 1989 until September 1996. In that capacity, her Honour appeared for thousands of Aboriginal people in towns such as Bourke, Brewarrina, Wilcannia and Broken Hill.
Her Honour worked as a Solicitor Advocate with the Legal Aid Commission and was called to the Bar in 1999. Her Honour was then appointed a Public Defender. Her Honour took silk in 2009 and became the first female Deputy Senior Public Defender in 2013.
Her Honour’s practice in the Supreme Court included murder trials and the year-long terrorism trial at Parramatta in 2009. In 2013, her Honour appeared as lead counsel in the High Court case of The Queen v Bugmy and in the Special Leave application in Honeysett.
Her Honour was appointed a Judge of the District Court in May 2014.
Between 2019 and November 2022, her Honour was the Chairperson of Diverse Women in Law, an Organisation which has been formed to mentor women of diverse backgrounds in the profession. In that position, she has mentored many women in the law and commenced the Court Observation Program which provides an opportunity for a woman from a diverse background, studying law, to spend a day with a Judge in either the Supreme or District Court, observing proceedings and generally engaging with the Judge and her/his staff. Her Honour was formerly a Board Member of Diverse Women in Law.
Her Honour is also the current Chair of the Ngara Yura Committee. The Ngara Yura Program aims to increase awareness among Judicial Officers about First Nations social and cultural issues. Her Honour is also a member of the Bugmy Bar Book Committee and Board Member of the Australian Institution of Judicial Administration (AIJA).
On 23 June 2022, her Honour was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Her Honour was sworn in on 4 July 2022.
In January 2023, her Honour became an Adjunct Professor at the Law School of the University of New South Wales. Her Honour currently teaches a newly devised sentencing course to undergraduate and postgraduate law students at the University of New South Wales.
Her book “The Essential Guide To Sentencing in NSW” was published in December 2023.
On 29 September 2025, her Honour became a Patron of Diverse Women in Law.