Sally Dowling is an Australian lawyer who has been

Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members o ...

for New South Wales since August 2021.

Early life and education

Dowling is one of three children; her mother, Stephanie Claire, worked as an English teacher and writer, and later married artist

Salvatore Zofrea Salvatore Zofrea OAM (born 1946) is an Italo-Australian artist and painter.Marlene Antico Fine Arts'Zofrea ExhibitionAccessed 06-20-2008 Life and work Zofrea was born in Borgia Italy, on the 1st January 1946, and emigrated to Australia in 19 ...

. Dowling attended North Sydney Girls High School but left in Year 11. She worked as a waitress and a bookie's clerk before later completing her HSC at

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

. She graduated from the University of Sydney in 1994.

Career

Dowling was admitted as a

legal practitioner A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicitor, ...

in 1995. She worked as an associate to Justice Hill in the Federal Court before practicing intellectual property and trade practices law as a solicitor. She was admitted as a barrister in 1997 and worked in private practice in commercial and intellectual property. Dowling started work at the DPP in 2001 and became a Crown prosecutor since 2005. In 2004, when her children were very young, Dowling was the only part-time trial crown prosecutor in NSW, working one week on, one week off. She acknowledged that it was very difficult to work part-time as a barrister and still earn enough to cover expenses, but said that working part-time "promotes efficiency." In 2013, Dowling was appointed Senior Counsel and in 2016 she was appointed Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor and head of the Appeals unit within the NSW office of the DPP. In 2019, she was Senior Counsel assisting the NSW Government's Special Commission of Inquiry into the Drug ‘Ice’. In 2020, she became a barrister in private practice at Wardell Chambers. Dowling was appointed to a ten year term as

in August 2021. She is the first woman to hold the role.

Personal life

Dowling has two children. In 2018,

's portrait of Dowling was a finalist in the Archibald Prize.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowling, Sally Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People educated at North Sydney Girls High School Sydney Law School alumni Australian barristers Australian prosecutors Australian Senior Counsel