A Victorian lawyer has been named this year’s winner of the William Ah Ket Scholarship.

Tienyi Long, a legal and governance officer at Glen Eira City Council in Melbourne, was awarded the scholarship for her essay on how equal justice can be achieved for diverse communities in a  multifaceted and complex society. Tienyi’s essay examines how the legal profession can become better equipped to respond to diverse clients.

Tienyi received the award from High Court Chief Justice The Honourable Susan Kiefel AC at an event held on Wednesday evening in the Great Hall of the High Court in Canberra.

Sydney graduate lawyer Sandra Hu and Melbourne graduate Amy Pereira were named as runners up.

This year marks the third year of the William Ah Ket Scholarship, an initiative of the Asian Australian Lawyers Association (AALA). The scholarship is named after William Ah Ket, who in 1904 became the first Australian barrister of Chinese origin. It is sponsored by Maddocks, where William Ah Ket was an articled clerk in 1903.

The winner of the scholarship receives $6,000, while the runners up receive $1,000 each.

The winning paper was chosen by a panel of judges:

• The Honourable Joshua Wilson, Justice of the Family Court of Australia
• The Honourable Helen Murrell, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Australian Capital Territory
• Professor Sally Wheeler OBE, Dean of ANU College of Law
• Patrick Ibbotson, Partner, Maddocks

AALA National President Kingsley Liu congratulated Tienyi on her successful essay.

‘This year saw the highest number of expressions of interest and the highest number of essays submitted in the scholarship’s history,’ Kingsley said.

‘The scope and quality of the essays were outstanding and the judges had an incredibly difficult job of deciding the winner from the shortlisted finalists.’

The papers will be published on the AALA website in due course.