A second NSW Bar Association Katrina Dawson Award for 2021

The NSW Bar Association continued its generous support of up-and-coming young female barristers, with the latest Katrina Dawson Award going to Nicola Gollan.

Nicola graduated from the University of New South Wales in 2014 with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours Class 1) and Bachelor of Science (majoring in Physiology). She was awarded the University Medal for the Bachelor of Laws, and an Order of Merit Certificate for placing first in her graduating class.

In 2015 Nicola worked as an associate to Justice Jagot of the Federal Court of Australia. In December of that year, she was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Since March 2016 Nicola has practised at Herbert Smith Freehills, for the majority of the time in the Intellectual Property Disputes group, where she was promoted to senior associate in July 2021.

Nicola has a keen interest in pro bono work. She has worked with the Shopfront Legal Centre on victims’ compensation matters and provided intellectual property advice for pro bono clients. She has also acted as a mentor to younger lawyers in the CareerTracker and CareerSeeker internship programs (for Indigenous students and asylum seekers). Nicola has raised funds for charity in the CanToo ocean swims and hopes to get involved in various committees of the Bar Association, particularly the Women Barristers Forum and the New Barristers Committee.

“It is a great honour to receive the Katrina Dawson Award’, Nicola said. ‘I really admire all of Katrina Dawson’s achievements and the manner in which she pursued her career at the Bar”.