Judge, Walama List, District Court of NSW, Sydney
Judge Hopkins is one of three judges of the District Court of NSW presiding in the Walama List, an alternative procedure for sentencing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons charged with criminal offences, with aims including the reduction in the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons in custody in NSW. She is the co-chair of the Walama Working Group and the Walama Users’ Forum.
Judge Hopkins is the District Court of NSW’s representative on the NSW Aboriginal Justice Partnership Committee, co-chaired by NSW DCJ and the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT. She is also a member of the Independent Advisory Panel for the Bugmy Bar Book. Prior to her appointment to the District Court, Judge Hopkins held various positions at the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT over a 25 year period, including the Principal Solicitor of Justice Projects, Policy and Practice, in which role she co-chaired the Closing the Gap Justice Targets Working Group, tasked with the design and implementation of the NSW program of work. An accredited
specialist in criminal law, she lectured in crime and the criminal process at the University of New South Wales.
Judge Hopkins was the founder and co-chair of Just Reinvest NSW. In that role, she worked with the Bourke community on the Maranguka Justice Reinvestment Project, which was the recipient of the 2015 National Rural Law and Justice Award, with Just Reinvest NSW receiving the 2019 HESTA Community Organisation Award and 2019 Australian Human Rights Commission Community Organisation Award.
Throughout her career she served on numerous committees including the NSW Bar Association’s Joint Working Party on the Over-representation of Indigenous People in the NSW Criminal Justice System, the Criminal Law Committee of the Law Society of NSW, the Steering Committee for the Red Cross Vulnerability Report, and as Vice President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties. In 2017 she was named the Community Lawyer of the Year by the Women Lawyers’ Association of NSW.
Judge Hopkins is one of three judges of the District Court of NSW presiding in the Walama List, an alternative procedure for sentencing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons charged with criminal offences, with aims including the reduction in the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons in custody in NSW. She is the co-chair of the Walama Working Group and the Walama Users’ Forum.
Judge Hopkins is the District Court of NSW’s representative on the NSW Aboriginal Justice Partnership Committee, co-chaired by NSW DCJ and the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT. She is also a member of the Independent Advisory Panel for the Bugmy Bar Book. Prior to her appointment to the District Court, Judge Hopkins held various positions at the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT over a 25 year period, including the Principal Solicitor of Justice Projects, Policy and Practice, in which role she co-chaired the Closing the Gap Justice Targets Working Group, tasked with the design and implementation of the NSW program of work. An accredited
specialist in criminal law, she lectured in crime and the criminal process at the University of New South Wales.
Judge Hopkins was the founder and co-chair of Just Reinvest NSW. In that role, she worked with the Bourke community on the Maranguka Justice Reinvestment Project, which was the recipient of the 2015 National Rural Law and Justice Award, with Just Reinvest NSW receiving the 2019 HESTA Community Organisation Award and 2019 Australian Human Rights Commission Community Organisation Award.
Throughout her career she served on numerous committees including the NSW Bar Association’s Joint Working Party on the Over-representation of Indigenous People in the NSW Criminal Justice System, the Criminal Law Committee of the Law Society of NSW, the Steering Committee for the Red Cross Vulnerability Report, and as Vice President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties. In 2017 she was named the Community Lawyer of the Year by the Women Lawyers’ Association of NSW.