Laura Dawson
Contact
Areas of Practice
Laura is a barrister in Brisbane who appears in courts and tribunals across Queensland and in all states and territories in Australia. She is available to be briefed for advice and appearance work in the following areas:
- Appellate
- Commissions of inquiry
- Criminal and regulatory
- Human rights/discrimination
- Personal injury and common law
- Public/administrative
Professional History
Laura was called to the Bar in May 2022. She holds a Bachelor of Laws with honours from the Queensland University of Technology.
Prior to coming to the bar, Laura was associate to the Honourable Justice Burns and to the Honourable Chief Justice Holmes in the Supreme Court of Queensland.
Laura has experience with commission of inquiry work; she was a paralegal on the Queensland Coal Mining Board of Inquiry between June 2020 and January 2021, counsel for Queensland Health in the Sofronoff DNA Commission of Inquiry from May 2022 to November 2022 and was then engaged by the Robodebt Royal Commission between January to March 2023 and May to July 2023. She was again counsel for Queensland Health in the Bennett DNA Commission of Inquiry from October to November 2023.
She has appeared led in appellate matters and led and unled in Queensland tribunals and in the Magistrates, District and Supreme Courts.
Qualifications and Admissions
- 2012 – Bachelor of Arts (Extended Major in Psychology) – University of Queensland
- 2019 – Bachelor of Laws (Honours) – Queensland University of Technology
- 2019 – Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice – College of Law
- September 2020 – Admitted as a Legal Practitioner in the Supreme Court of Queensland
- May 2022 – Admitted as a Barrister in the Supreme Court of Queensland
- September 2023 – Admitted on role of practitioners in the High Court of Australia
Professional Memberships
- Australian Lawyers Alliance
- Bar Association of Queensland