Sally Dowling SC is an Australian lawyer who has been Director of Public Prosecutions for New South Wales since August 2021.
Early life and education
editDowling is one of three children; her mother, Stephanie Claire, worked as an English teacher and writer, and later married artist Salvatore Zofrea.[1] Dowling attended North Sydney Girls High School but left in Year 11.[2] She worked as a waitress and a bookie's clerk before later completing her HSC at TAFE.[2][3] She graduated from the University of Sydney in 1994.[4]
Career
editDowling was admitted as a legal practitioner in 1995.[5] She worked as an associate to Justice Hill in the Federal Court before practicing intellectual property and trade practices law as a solicitor.[4] She was admitted as a barrister in 1997 and worked in private practice in commercial and intellectual property.[4]
Dowling started work at the DPP in 2001[4] and became a Crown prosecutor since 2005.[5] In 2004, when her children were very young, Dowling was the only part-time trial crown prosecutor in NSW, working one week on, one week off.[4] She acknowledged that it was very difficult to work part-time as a barrister and still earn enough to cover expenses, but said that working part-time "promotes efficiency."[6]
In 2013, Dowling was appointed senior counsel and in 2016 she was appointed deputy senior Crown prosecutor and head of the appeals unit within the NSW office of the DPP.[5][2] In 2019, she was senior counsel assisting the NSW Government's Special Commission of Inquiry into the Drug ‘Ice’.[5] In 2020, she became a barrister in private practice at Wardell Chambers.[5]
Dowling was appointed to a ten-year term as Director of Public Prosecutions in August 2021.[5] She is the first woman to hold the role.[7]
Personal life
editDowling has two children.[4]
In 2018, Salvatore Zofrea's portrait of Dowling was a finalist in the Archibald Prize.[8][9]
References
edit- ^ Burton, Rosamund (18 March 2016). "Two of us: Stephanie Claire & Les Atallah". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
- ^ a b c Hislop, Madeline (12 August 2021). "Sally Dowling appointed NSW's first female Director of Public Prosecutions". Women's Agenda. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
- ^ Tovey, Josephine (18 December 2012). "Second chances - life lesson more important than HSC". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f "Life in Crown Prosecutors' Chambers Concerning Dally Dowling" (PDF). Bar News. 2004. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f "First woman appointed as DPP in NSW". Canberra Times. 12 August 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
- ^ Taylor, Ingmar (2015). "Parental Responsibilities and the Bar" (PDF). Bar News: The Journal of the New South Wales Bar Association: 30–45.
- ^ Whitbourn, Michaela (12 August 2021). "Sydney silk Sally Dowling appointed NSW's first female DPP". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
- ^ "Salvatore Zofrea Sally Dowling SC". Art Gallery of NSW.
- ^ Mendelssohn, Joanna (4 May 2018). "The 2018 Archibald, Sulman and Wynne prizes show a changing of the guard". The Conversation. Retrieved 4 December 2021.