Associate Professor Kate Fischer-Doherty

Overview

Kate Fischer Doherty is the Director of Melbourne Law School Clinics. In this role she coordinates and oversees the suite of student law clinics and an extensive public interest legal internship program.

Kate is experienced in the design and development of clinical and experiential learning opportunities. She has designed and co-designed several new clinics, including the Indigenous Legal Advocacy Clinic and Street Law: Community Legal Empowerment, and is frequently consulted by colleagues on experiential learning design and teaching practice. In 2017 Kate received funding from The University of Melbourne to develop a resource bank to support students undertaking curricular and extra-curricular placement-based opportunities in law.

Kate regularly presents on clinical design and teaching at national and international conferences. In 2024 she was a co-organiser of the National Wellness for Law Forum which attracted speakers from UK, Canada and the United States as well as from across Australia. An edited collection of papers from the Forum will be published by LexisNexis in late-2024.

With Dr Brad Jessup, Kate has researched and presented on models for climate clinical legal education (Jessup and Fischer Doherty, chapter forthcoming).

Prior to joining MLS in 2015, Kate worked in the community legal sector for more than 10 years. She is admitted to practice law in Victoria.

Awards

In 2024 Kate was awarded the Australian Legal Education Award for Excellence in Teaching (Engagement) by the Australasian Legal Academics Association. Kate has been a finalist for the Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards for Academic of the Year. In 2023 the MLS Clinics program was shortlisted for an Engagement Australia Excellence Award for Outstanding Engagement for Student Learning.

Memberships and Affiliations

• Global Alliance for Justice Education
• Australian Clinical Legal Education Network