The Presentation of the 2008 Award

Presentation of Award

Catherine Leslie, The Hon. Justice Richard Edmonds

The 2008 Annual Graham Hill Award was conferred on Catherine Leslie.

Catherine is a Special Counsel of tax litigation at the Australian Government Solicitor's Office. As such, she has the ultimate responsibility of all tax litigation where that Office is instructed.

John Durack SC spoke at the presentation and said:

"It will come as no surprise to those who know her that Catherine should have been selected to receive the 2008 Graham Hill Award.

Graham himself, of course, would have heartily approved…

The conferral of the award on Catherine shows that it is not merely available to those like inaugural recipient Justice Daryl Davies and last year's recipient, Professor Lee Burns, who come from the highest ranks of the judiciary and academia. It shows that it can go to anyone who achieves a standard of excellence in what has been called the "tax profession"."

He went on to say:

"Most of Catherine's professional career has been associated with tax matters. She passed with distinction in the undergraduate course in taxation conducted by the late Professor Ross Parsons and commenced to do tax work with the then Commonwealth Crown Solicitor within three years of commencing employment with that office in 1979. She became a principal legal officer in 1987. In this role she was responsible for mentoring a number of those who are now senior executive lawyers involved in the AGS' tax section, as well as lawyers who have moved on to other positions in government service and in the private profession.

She progressed to become a member of the Senior Executive Service and was given a team leader supervisory role in 2001 until her appointment in 2007 to her existing position.

Catherine first briefed Graham Hill in a tax matter in 1984, just after Graham had been appointed a silk. The case, Foley v Tectran Corporation involved an appeal to the NSW Court of Appeal. Catherine had personally typed the appeal documents late on a Friday evening - typical of her never flagging willingness to get the essential work done."

Michael D'Ascenzo, the Commissioner of Taxation, also spoke at the presentation and congratulated Catherine on being a worthy recipient of the Award. He stated:

"I think that Graham would be pleased with the choices made by the Committee for this prestigious award given in his memory. It is given to those that have made a significant contribution to improving administration, policy, practice, teaching or understanding of revenue law in Australia.

Recipients such as Daryl Davies, Lee Burns and now Catherine Leslie have made their contribution in different ways…

Well done Catherine!"

The 2007 Award was conferred on Professor Lee Burns and the 2006 Award on Daryl Davies.