ABOUT

Dr Katherine Fallah accepts briefs in all areas of the law. She maintains a mixed practice with a focus on international law, human rights, inquests and inquiries, public law and appellate criminal law.

Katherine was called to the Bar in 2021 after over a decade in academia. As a lecturer at Sydney Law School and UTS Law, she taught principally in international law and criminal law. She holds a PhD in international law from the University of Sydney and has held visiting fellowships and doctoral research positions at Harvard Law School, the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa, Melbourne Law School, the Paris Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, and the European University Institute, Florence. Katherine continues to lecture in international law at the Australian National University.

Before taking up her academic appointments, Katherine served as a Prosecution Officer at the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Research Associate to the Judges of the Federal Court of Australia, and paralegal and law clerk at major commercial law firms in Sydney. She worked as Senior Researcher on an Australian Research Council project on the 'particular social group' ground in the Refugees Convention and has contributed to a variety of public interest projects, including in the area of transgender rights and as a volunteer with the death row defence team at the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Centre in New Orleans. For over a decade, she served on the International Humanitarian Law Advisory Committee of the Australian Red Cross.

Katherine is the recipient of several international prizes, including the Prix Jean-Pictet for International Humanitarian Law and the Audre Rapoport Prize for Scholarship on Gender and Human Rights. In 2019 she was named a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow with the ARC Laureate Program in International Law at Melbourne Law School.

Katherine is firmly committed to strengthening access to justice and maintains a dedicated human rights and migration pro bono practice.

Katherine’s CV is available here.

Select Cases

Human Rights – arbitrary detention – Human Rights Act 2006 (ACT): Deng v Australian Capital Territory (No 3) [2022] ACTSC 262 (ACT Supreme Court, led by Adam Hochroth for the defendants).

Human Rights – disability discrimination in the provision of goods and services: Evans v McConaghy Shopping Centres Pty Ltd [2022] NSWCATAD 406 (NCAT, final outcome confidential, unled for the applicant).

Human Rights – race discrimination in policing: Mullaley v Western Australia (Federal Court of Australia, outcome confidential, unled for the applicants).

Human Rights – race discrimination and disability discrimination against youth detainees at Banksia Hill Detention Centre: EIX20 v Western Australia; EIY20 v Western Australia (Federal Court of Australia, ongoing, led by Geoffrey Watson SC and Diana Tang for the applicants).

Coronial Inquest – Inquest into the Death of George Campbell (2023, led by Simeon Beckett SC for the Department of Communities and Justice).

Coronial Inquest – Inquest into the Death of EM (ongoing, unled for a Person of Sufficient Interest).

Coronial Inquest – Inquest into the Death of AW; Inquiry into Fire at 4411 Castlereagh Highway Capertee (2023, unled for a Person of Sufficient Interest).

Criminal Appeal – tendency and coincidence evidence – discharge of dissentient juror:  Addo v R [2022] NSWCCA 141 (Court of Criminal Appeal, led by David Carroll for the appellant).

Criminal Appeal – application of Bugmy principles on sentencing: DR v R [2022] NSWCCA 151 (Court of Criminal Appeal, led by Ragni Mathur SC for the appellant).

Criminal Appeal – mental illness considerations on sentencing: Ney v R (Court of Criminal Appeal, led by Grant Brady SC for the appellant).