La Trobe law graduate Catherine Eglezos has received the 2013 Victorian Law Foundation Chief Justice’s Medal for Excellence and Community Service.
The award is only presented to one graduating Victorian law student each year and as Ms Eglezos says, “to have my achievements throughout my five years at University recognised in this way is indeed an honour”.
“I feel extremely humbled to be the recipient of the 2013 Chief Justice Medal,” she tells Neos Kosmos
“It is a privilege to have been selected from a group of worthy candidates who are dedicated to their legal studies and passionate about community service.”
Ms Eglezos took up law as she had a keen passion for social justice and felt a need to contribute to the addressing of inequalities in society.
“I decided to study law as I felt it would enable me to develop a greater understanding of the nature of our legal system and the attempts being made to remedy inequalities in access to justice for particular groups in society,” she explains, adding she completed the subject of Legal Studies in her VCE and found the subject matter extremely interesting.
“As I have always been committed to academic excellence, I also believed that a law degree would continue to challenge me and would enable me to further enhance my written, oral and analytical skills.”
Currently, Ms Eglezos is a graduate with the firm Herbert Smith Freehills, rotating through the Commercial Disputes Team. She says the firm has allowed her to combine her commitment to community services and her legal work by being the graduate representative on the firm’s Community Committee; she participates in the Student Mentoring Program with Hawthorn Secondary College and will shortly start with the Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic. One of the reasons Ms Eglezos received the award was the constant charity work she’s been involved with. Since 2002, she has been a member of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society in the role of President of the Brunswick Young Adult Conference.
Whilst she was studying, she participated in other volunteer programs such as the La Trobe Infinity Leadership Program, a Legal Sector Internship, through the Victoria Law Foundation, with the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (2010), and a remote research internship with the Special Court for Sierra Leone, The Hague (2012).
Ms Eglezos says she draws inspiration from her grandparents, and gets her strong work drive from them too.
“I have always been inspired by my grandparents who came to Australia in search of opportunities to build a better life for their families.
“My grandparents’ work ethic has never ceased to amaze me and I have learnt from them the importance of both seeking out and seizing every opportunity available to you.”