UTS Law announces four finalists in the Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards

Four UTS Law representatives have been announced as finalists in the 2023 Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards. This prestigious national awards scheme recognises the exceptional women who are shaping the legal profession in Australia.

Professor Natalie Stoianoff has been named as a finalist in two categories: Academic/Researcher of the Year and Thought Leader of the Year.

Over 15 years, she has led the ongoing evolution of UTS’s world-class postgraduate Intellectual Property program, which trains the next generation of patent and trademark attorneys and IP professionals for Australia and New Zealand.

As a thought leader, she is also blazing a trail towards the reform of intellectual property & biodiversity laws to better recognise and protect the knowledges and culture of Australia’s First Nations peoples.

“My passion and crusade for over a decade has been to demonstrate how the creation of standalone legislation can be developed to empower First Nations Australians to protect and manage access to their Indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions,” Professor Stoianoff says.

“Winning this award would confirm my faith in the legal profession to effect positive
change through persistence and strong belief in our core value of justice.”

Final-year student Jaya Dadwal and penultimate-year student Melissa Dib have both been named as finalists in the Law Student of the Year category, which recognises the academic, community and legal achievements of undergraduate law students.

Melissa, who is currently completing a Bachelor of Law Bachelor of Business (Human Resource Management), brings her passion for human rights and legal policy to her internship at the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties.

On campus, as a dedicated member of the UTS Law Students’ Society, the UTS Business Mentors Program and Batyr@UTS, Melissa is committed to helping shape the UTS student experience and encouraging students to find their passions.  

She says a culture of academic excellence, an emphasis on critical thinking and the opportunity to engage with extensive extracurricular opportunities, including mooting competitions and simulated client interviews and negotiations, sets the UTS Law program apart.

“It’s one thing to learn everything in the classroom and read all these interesting cases, but it’s another to actually put all that in practice and get a taste of what being a lawyer is going to be like,” she says.

Jaya recently completed an honours thesis in the area of medical negligence. She came to UTS because of the depth of its program offerings in health law, an area in which she hopes to forge a career.

“One of the brilliant things about UTS is they offered me a really wide spectrum of health law electives that I wouldn’t have gotten elsewhere,” she says.

“UTS has really given me total scope to dive into my passion and do it thoroughly.”

Now preparing for further study in public health, Jaya is a recipient of the Brennan Justice and Leadership Award and an active member of Respect.Now.Always, a national campaign to tackle sexual harms on Australian university campuses.

As a volunteer with the NSW Women’s Justice Network, she examined the health inequities faced by incarcerated women in NSW and contributed to a parliamentary submission on the need for a federal human rights statute.

UTS alumna Stefanie Costi was also named as finalist for both Thought Leader of the Year and Wellness Advocate of the Year. A graduate of the Juris Doctor and the Graduate Certificate in Professional Legal Practice, Stefanie is the founder of Inicio, an initiative to overcome bullying within the legal profession.

“It’s my pleasure to congratulate Natalie, Melissa, Jaya and Stefanie on their nominations for the Women in Law Awards,” says Professor Anita Stuhmcke, Dean of the Faculty of Law.

“These four remarkable women embody what UTS Law is all about — world-class teaching and research, remarkable students, and a culture in which everyone is encouraged to give back to the university, the community and the Australian legal profession.”

The winners of the 2023 Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards will be announced on November 23.