Meet the lawyers of the Brittany Higgins, Bruce Lehrmann rape trial
Brittany Higgins and Bruce Lehrmann have been in court this week for one the country’s most followed criminal trials — meet their high-powered legal line-up.
The high-profile trial of Bruce Lehrmann, the man accused of the sexual assault of former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins in Parliament House started this week.
And while Ms Higgins and Mr Lehrmann dominate dialogue surrounding the trial so far, some of the country’s top lawyers put to work to prosecute and defend the case.
Mr Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent against Ms Higgins in the early hours of March 23, 2019.
On one side of the courtroom is Mr Lehrmann’s chief defender, barrister Steven Whybrow.
Once a prosecutor himself for 12 years, Mr Whybrow carved out his legal career in military courts and tribunals as an legal officer for the RAAF working in court martials.
He remains an Assistant Inspector General of the ADF, conducting inquiries into service related deaths and other major defence-related incidents and reviews.
Mr Whybrow’s online biography states he has a “strong interest in forensic science and investigative methods and techniques” due to his background in organic chemistry.
Like his opponent prosecutor, he holds multiple degrees in science and law.
Mr Lehrmann’s junior counsel for the trial is another former ACT prosecutor, Katrina Musgrove, who has worked on high-profile trials involving allegations of sexual assault and serious injuries.
Also on the defence is Rachel Fisher, a solicitor at leading Canberra firm, Kamy Saeedi Law.
She was an ACT Magistrate’s associate between 2019 and 2020 before starting her current job in October 2020.
Ms Fisher’s LinkedIn states she also worked at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet between 2015 and 2017, before joining Australia’s Attorney-General’s Department between 2017 and 2019.
Ms Fisher has walked with Mr Lehrmann on his way to court on the first four days of the trial.
Ms Higgins has been joined on her way to court by her partner David Sharaz and the ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates.
Leading the prosecutions’ fight against the accused is ACT’s Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold SC, a high school dropout turned top prosecutor.
After fighting to get his way into university from his modest upbringing in a Mt Druitt Housing commission, Mr Drumgold persevered to attain Bachelor degrees in economics, laws (with honours) and a Masters degree in international law.
He was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2003 to study restorative justice in indigenous communities in the United States, Canada and New Zealand, and has also worked as a public defender in the Solomon Islands.
Mr Drumgold, a self-professed “has been” boxer who once won light welterweight and welterweight gold medals at the Australian Master Games, has been an ACT prosecutor since 2002.
His junior prosecutor is Skye Jerome, an experienced prosecutor having worked cases in both ACT and Queensland.
She has a double degree in international business and law at Queensland University of Technology.
In 2018, while a Senior Crown Prosecutor in Townsville, Ms Jerome told News Corp she attributed her success to her hardworking single mother – Paula Jerome.
“Mum often worked two jobs so the four of us could go to a good school,” she said.
Chief justice Lucy McCallum is presiding over the trial at the ACT Supreme Court in Canberra.
The trial continues.