Like many of #UNELaw’s students, Tamaris Hoffman decided to study Law later on in life. She was actually interested in studying law when in high school, but decided to pursue a career in medicine instead.

Tamaris has loved every aspect of her experience as an online student at #UNE Law.  Her favourite subjects have been Constitutional Law with Associate Professor Greg Carne and Property Law and Natural Resources Law with Dr Andrew Lawson. She enjoyed her teaching experience with Andrew Lawson so much that she decided to complete her honour’s dissertation under his supervision.

In terms of the synergies between completing a law degree and being a medical doctor, Tamaris notes ‘every case has a person’s story behind it. This is how the study of law and medicine coincide and intersect.’

She noted ‘the teaching at #UNELaw is exceptional. The standard of lecturers is fantastic and none of the lecturers appear to be jaded, tired or unmotivated. This inspires students to go the extra mile.’ Recently Tamaris did just this.

Tamaris has recently received two prizes as a result of legal essays she wrote. The first prize was the Francis Forbes prize where Tamaris received $1,000 cash and books from Federation Press. ‘Perhaps the best part of this prize for me was that it was presented by Chief Justice Allsop.’ Her paper entitled ‘The Solomons and ‘Our Patch’ in the Pacific- 100 Years on from Sir John Latham and the League of Nations’ related to legal history and Tamaris wrote it in a quiet period ‘for something fun to do!’

In addition, she won the Australian Legal Aviation Society Geoff Masel prize. As part of this prize she received a year’s membership to the society and attendance at the ALAANZ conference. This essay was developed out of a paper she wrote as part of Associate Professor Cameron Moore’s course for the LLM500 subject in Trimester 3 last year. It was entitled:’ Over-regulation in Australian General Aviation- The Case of Cost-Sharing for Private Flight Operations.’ 

Tamaris is about to turn 60 years young. When I asked her what she plans to do with her law degree, she noted: ‘I may have missed out on my chance to become a judge on the High Court, but I hope to use my law degree in the medical context. Potentially I will pursue a medico-legal role. For example, I hope to use my law degree to inform policy in the medical sphere.’

Congratulations Tamaris. We are all looking forward to seeing where your law degree takes you!