Current Position:  Judge of the NSW District Court

 86 Goulburn Street, Sydney.

PO Box K106 Haymarket 1240

 Qualifications: 

 1) Arts – Law UNSW (graduated 1089)

 2) Masters in International Law: Sydney University (graduated 2012 )

Judge Yehia SC was admitted as a solicitor in 1989. Her first position as a solicitor was with the Western Aboriginal Legal Service from 1990 until 1996. In that capacity she represented thousands of Aboriginal people in the Local, District and Supreme Court.  She was based in Dubbo but appeared in courts throughout north-western NSW including Bourke, Brewarrina Wilcannia and Broken Hill.

Her Honour was also the solicitor appearing on behalf of the Boney family in the hearings before the Royal Commision Into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody. In her time in Western New South Wales she was regularly involved with community initiatives concerned with reducing the incarceration rate of indigenous people.

Upon her return to Sydney her Honour worked as the Solicitor Advocate with the Legal Aid Commission. She went to the Bar in 2001 and was appointed as a Public Defender. She appeared in the year-long terrorism trial and in numerous Supreme Court murder trials. Her Honour took silk in 2009 and was appointed the first female Deputy Senior Public Defender in 2013.

Her Honour continued to appear on behalf of Aboriginal people in various jurisdictions including in the High Court in the case of Bugmy  v The Queen in 2013. She argued that the High Court should endorse an approach to sentencing indigenous offenders similar to that approved by the Canadian Supreme Court, namely recognising the unique systemic factors caused by a history of dispossession and colonisation and how that history has led to the socio economic disadvantages impacting on some communities today.

Her Honour took silk in 2009 and was the first woman to be appointed Deputy Senior Public Defender in 2011.

Her Honour was appointed a Judge of the NSW District Court in May 2014.

She is the Chairperson of the Walama Court Working Group. The Working Party has submitted a proposal to the NSW Government calling for the Walama Court to be established as a Division of the NSW District Court.