to benefit New Zealand
2009 Ethel Benjamin Scholarship (For Women)
Grace (Sim Dam) Lee
LLB (Hons)/B.Com Canterbury
Two young lawyers have received this year's New Zealand Law Foundation Ethel Benjamin Scholarship - Kate Wevers, of Wellington, and Grace (Sim Dam) Lee, of Auckland. The Ethel Benjamin Scholarship is worth $25,000 to each of the recipients.
Grace will head to the UK at the end of September to read for an LLM at Cambridge University, where she intends studying international environmental law, focusing on climate change, and international economic law.
She has worked at specialist finance and corporate law firm Mayne Wetherell since completing her LLB (First Class Honours) and B Com in Economics at Canterbury University in 2007.
During her time at Canterbury University, Grace achieved a notable collection of prizes, beginning with the New Zealand Law Review prize for her performance in first year law.
In 2004, she received the Anderson Lloyd Prize in Land Law; in 2005, the Duncan Cotterill Award for best all round performance in the core law subjects and in 2007 was awarded the Deloitte prize in taxation.
As a result of being the top student in Public International Law in 2007, Grace was invited to join the Canterbury team representing New Zealand at the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in Washington, as the team's submission writer and researcher.