Throughout her career, Ms Tonkin has been an assistant parliamentary counsel with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel and a prosecutor with the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions.

She took to the bar in 1995 and has since worked as a barrister with Blackburn Chambers, primarily specialising in family law and criminal law, as well as proceedings under mental health and guardianship legislation and common law matters.

ACT Law Society president Sarah Avery congratulated Ms Tonkin on her new role.

“Ms Tonkin’s reputation for diligence and thoroughness will serve her well in this role,” she said.

“Those practitioners who have had the opportunity to brief her as a barrister speak very highly of her, noting her common sense and down-to-earth nature. She has also been a fine mentor to many in the profession.

“The law society congratulates Ms Tonkin on her appointment.”

Ms Avery noted that the law society is pleased that the federal government is responding to the concerns raised by many practitioners about the resourcing of the Canberra registry.

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“This appointment will go some way to ensure the workload of the court is efficiently managed, to the benefit of litigants,” she added.