Lyma Nguyen

• Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions – 6 years
  As a Federal Prosecutor, Lyma had conduct of a range of indictable and summary matters including transnational crimes (illegal foreign fisheries, crimes at sea, aviation offences, illegal importations and drug offences, Migration Act offences, and take evidence proceedings in Mutual Assistance matters), human exploitation offences (human trafficking, slavery, child sex exploitation) and corporations offences.
• Federal Attorney-General’s Department (2008/2009)
  As a government Legal Officer, Lyma worked in both Criminal Justice Division, in the area of international transfer of prisoners, dealing with prisoner case work and bilateral treaties, and in Civil Justice Division (Human Rights Branch), scrutinising bills and providing legal and policy advice on domestic human rights and anti- discrimination matters, leading up to the federal National Consultation on Human Rights.
• Department of Immigration and Citizenship
• Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Qld)
• Drew & Napier LLP
  An international clerkship in the litigation department of leading Singaporean law firm.
• Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
  Lyma is one of 45 nominated Australian women lawyers whose oral history is recorded in the national archives in the “Trailblazing Women Lawyers Project”, particularly for her work as International Civil Party Counsel at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (‘ECCC’ or Khmer Rouge Tribunal).In the ECCC jurisdiction, Lyma successfully appealed Civil Party admissibility decisions before the Pre-Trial Chamber and appeared as Counsel in pre-trial and trial proceedings, including at the examination of Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch, convicted in Case 001), the Closing Statements in Case 002 and evidence proceedings in the trial segment involving the genocide of the ethnic Vietnamese minority victims who she represents.
• Lawyers Beyond Borders
  In 2010, she took an assignment as International Criminal Law Advisor with Lawyers Beyond Borders under AVI where she provided advice to national lawyers from Legal Aid of Cambodia on its work with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and its labour and human trafficking project.

• Masters in Law (specialising in International Law), Australian National University
• Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, College of Law
• Bachelor of Laws, University of Queensland
• Bachelor of Arts (Double Major in Philosophy and Peace and Conflict Studies), University of Queensland
• DELF B1 level French language skills

• 2022:
  • International Criminal Court Bar Association, member of Legal Advisory Committee.
• 2021 to 2023:
  • Branch President of the inaugural NT Branch of the Asian Australian Lawyers Association.
• 2022 and 2021:
  • Named by the NT News as one of the Northern Territory’s 100 Most Powerful Women”.
• 2021:
  Named by the NT News as one of the Northern Territory’s 100 Most Powerful Women.
• 2020:
  Overall 2020 winner of the 40 under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian Leadership Awards.
  • Committee Member, United Nations Association Australia, NT Chapter.
• 2018 to date: Member on the Advisory Board of TransOcean (a European Research Council funded project:  Transoceanic Fishers: Multiple Mobilities in and out of the South China Sea).
• 2018:
  • Appointed List Counsel for the International Criminal Court.
• 2016:
  • Member, Diversity and Equity Committee, Australian Bar Association.
  • Listed on French Consulate-General website as French-speaking lawyer in the NT.
• 2017, 2014; Vice-President (2015-2017):
  Committee Member, Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory.
• 2015:
  Vice-President, Criminal Law Association of the Northern Territory
  • Representative of NT Bar Association on Law Council of Australia’s Rule of Law Network
• 2014 – 2019:
  Member, Northern Territory Bar Council
• 2014:
  Director on the Board of Australian Volunteers International
  • One of 45 selected Australian female lawyers in oral history project conducted by ANU and University of Melbourne,
  • ‘Trailblazing Woman Lawyer’
• 2014 – 2015:
  Recipient of Churchill Fellowship – To build expertise in the practice of international criminal justice by examining the operation of international courts and preparing victim representation in a genocide trial before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
• 2013:
  Recipient of Australian Prime Minister’s Executive Endeavour Award.
• 2012:
  Law and Justice Civilian Expert, Australian Civilian Corps.
• 2010 – 2011:
  Returned Australian Volunteer from assignment as International Criminal Law Advisor to Legal Aid of Cambodia, Australian Volunteers International.

Lyma was appointed List Counsel at the International Criminal Court in 2018 and in 2022, was appointed a member of the International Criminal Court Bar Association Legal Advisory Committee.

Lyma is one of 45 nominated Australian women lawyers whose oral history is recorded in the national archives in the “Trailblazing Women Lawyers Project”, particularly for her work as International Civil Party Counsel at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (‘ECCC’ or Khmer Rouge Tribunal). Since 2009, Lyma has provided pro bono legal services for over 100 victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, including foreign nationals, members of the Cambodian diaspora world-wide, as well as ethnic minority victims in the Tribunal’s historical genocide case.

In 2010, she took an assignment as International Criminal Law Advisor with Lawyers Beyond Borders under AVI where she provided advice to national lawyers from Legal Aid of Cambodia on its work with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and its labour and human trafficking project. In the ECCC jurisdiction, Lyma successfully appealed Civil Party admissibility decisions before the Pre-Trial Chamber and appeared as Counsel in pre-trial and trial proceedings, including at the examination of Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch, convicted in Case 001), the Closing Statements in Case 002 and evidence proceedings in the trial segment involving the genocide of the ethnic Vietnamese minority victims she represents.

In 2013, she received the Prime Minister’s Executive Endeavour Award in recognition of her work in at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. One year later, Lyma was awarded the prestigious Churchill Fellowship with the aim to build expertise in the practice of international criminal justice by examining the operation of international courts and preparing victim representation in the genocide trial before the ECCC. At a specialised training course in ‘Advocacy and Litigation before International Courts and Tribunals’ organized by the Universiteit Leiden, The Hague, she was awarded the Best Advocate Award.

Since 2012, Lyma has been enlisted as a Law and Justice Civilian Expert on the register of the Australian Civilian Corps under the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, for rapid deployment to fragile or post-conflict situations. In this capacity, she has provided advice as a subject matter civilian expert in detention, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration.

Lyma has worked in Cambodia, Singapore, Nigeria and East Timor, and has French and Vietnamese language skills.

She has guest-lectured at universities globally and presented extensively on genocide and victims representation in international courts, including at the Legal Eagles Criminal Law Conference (Luang Prabang, Laos, 2016 and Hoi An, Vietnam, 2015), the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL) Conference, Canberra (2014); and CLANT Conference (Bali, 2013).  Lyma has also served as part of the legal team led by William Lye OAM KC, advising the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) on strategies relevant to the gathering of evidence from Ukrainians in Australia about serious crimes committed in the course of the armed conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine.  She has also presented on transnational crimes globally, including about the Prosecution and Defence of Foreign Fishermen in Australian Waters, at Bergen University Faculty of Law, and as part of the TransOcean project funded by the European Research Council, and led by Senior Researcher, Edyta Roszko.

For more information about Lyma’s domestic and international practice, see:  www.lymanguyen.com

For CPD presentations, reports and speeches, see:  https://lymanguyen.com/publications/

• French
• Vietnamese