Championing Change: Catherine Scott Awarded the 2025 President’s Award

The President’s Award is one of the highest honours in the legal profession, recognising individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the profession and serve as exemplary role models. This year at the Law Society’s Opening of the Legal Year Dinner, the award was presented to Catherine Scott, a legal leader whose influence has spanned private practice, judicial administration, and professional education.

For over two decades, Catherine has been a frontrunner in shaping progressive legal practices and fostering a more inclusive professional culture in Tasmania, while also making significant strides in raising the profile of gender equality within the profession. She has also established herself as a leading expert in dispute resolution and administrative law, including playing a key role in guiding major infrastructure projects through the complexities of Tasmanian and Commonwealth statutory approvals.

Catherine’s career in private practice began in 2002. She became a partner at Page Seager Lawyers from 2008 to 2010 and again from 2017 to 2020. From 2010 to 2016, she served as the Federal Court and Administrative Appeals Tribunal Registrar for Tasmania, where she led legal process improvements and spearheaded professional development and mediation accreditation programs, before returning to private practice.

After joining Conmoto Group in 2020, Catherine gained national attention for her pivotal role in the 2024 ‘Ladies’ Lounge Appeal,’ a groundbreaking case that tested the boundaries of gender equality in the law. Her argument – that an artwork designed to exclude men could, paradoxically, serve as a statement on gender privilege and bias – set a legal precedent and sparked an important conversation about the silent forces of inequality that persist today.

Catherine’s role as the sole accredited presenter of the Law Society’s ‘Sexual Harassment: Changing Workplace Culture’ workshop has also been transformative. Since 2021, she has personally delivered this compulsory training to over 1,200 legal practitioners, ensuring every Tasmanian lawyer is equipped to help create a safer and more respectful profession.

In her acceptance speech, Catherine shared why she took on the Society’s Changing Workplace Culture seminars:

“I was looking for an opportunity to improve the legal profession for women, to improve the environment we work in, because I’ve watched too many talented women leave. While the sexual harassment seminar wasn’t the whole solution, it was something tangible. It brought us together and reminded us that we can stamp out sexual harassment if we choose to.”

Catherine also reflected on the deeper impact of gender bias in the profession, emphasising the need for collective awareness and action:

“As women, we need to remind ourselves when we’re interrupted, when our opinions are dismissed, or when gender bias is present in the room, that there’s nothing wrong with us. The disadvantage women experience isn’t about capability – it’s about bias, and we have the power to change it.”

Her call to action challenges the profession to confront gender bias at its root:

“If we want to tackle gender bias in the same way we have tackled sexual harassment, we have to be prepared to examine the contents of our own head. Because we can change it. It’s actually pretty easy.”

Catherine’s leadership, courage, and unwavering commitment to a fairer legal profession make her truly deserving of the 2025 President’s Award.

Congratulations, Catherine!