Immigration Law Seminar 2023

Kate regularly appears, both led and unled, in federal and state jurisdictions at trial and appellate level. She practises nationally in the Federal Court of Australia and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and travels regularly for appearances. Kate appeared for the plaintiffs in the two most recent High Court cases on the operation and application of the power in s 51(xix) of the Constitution: the ground-breaking case of Love v Commonwealth of Australia [2020] HCA 3; (2020) 270 CLR 152 (where she was led by Stephen Keim SC) and, Chetcuti v Commonwealth of Australia [2021] HCA 25; 95 ALJR 1 (where she was led by Georgina Schoff QC and Georgina Costello QC).

Kate is frequently briefed in complex judicial review proceedings (see, for example, Norouzi v The Director of the Professional Services Review Agency [2020] FCA 1524; Byron Aged Care Limited v Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner [2022] FFCA 1060 (unled against Silk)).

The Honourable John Alexander Logan RFD was appointed to the Federal Court of Australia in September 2007.

His Honour was admitted to the Queensland Bar in 1980. He was then working in the Commonwealth Crown Solicitor’s office in Brisbane. He commenced private practice at the Queensland Bar in 1984 and was appointed senior counsel in 1999.

To his Honour’s recollection, the very first appearance he made after admission was in 1980 at the No 1 Magistrates Court in Brisbane before a magistrate undertaking the role of a prescribed authority under the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) in respect of a person detained as an alleged “prohibited immigrant”. One of his Honour’s principal areas of practice at the Bar was public law. He appeared in cases arising under the Act at original and intermediate appellate level in the Federal Court of Australia and in the High Court of Australia. Those appearances included, as his Honour recalls, on one day appearing before the same judge in the Federal Court of Australia for the Minister in the morning in a judicial review case and against him in a like case in the afternoon. Since his appointment to the Federal Court of Australia, his Honour has sat at original and intermediate level in numerous cases arising under the Act and also in cases concerning citizenship and migration agent registration controversies. 

His Honour was awarded the Reserve Force Decoration (RFD) in 1993 in respect of lengthy and efficient service as an officer in the Australian Intelligence Corps.