This year, the UQLA is, again, holding a dinner to farewell the UQ Law Alumni who are preparing to embark upon postgraduate study overseas – and to offer those alumni some advice from those who have previously undertaken such a course of study in previous years.

The dinner is named in honour of Francis Patrick (Pat) Donovan (1922-2012), the first UQ law graduate to take this path.  Donovan was born on 2 February 1922 in Ingham.  He was educated at St Joseph's College, Nudgee, where he was Dux.  In 1938, he was awarded an open scholarship to the University of Queensland.  During the war years (1939-1945), he completed his legal studies whilst serving in the Australian Army.  In 1946, he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and was admitted as a barrister.   In 1946, he became the Law School's first Rhodes Scholar.  At Magdalen College, Oxford, he completed a Bachelor of Civil Laws degree (1949).  In 1952, he was appointed Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Melbourne.  In 1961, he commenced a career in the Australian diplomatic service, later becoming Australia's Ambassador to the OECD (1977).  After retirement from the diplomatic service, he served on the International Court of Arbitration.  In 1976, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia.  In 1998, the French government appointed him a Chevalier Legion d'honneur.  After many years living in an apartment in the Avenue Foch, Paris, he died at the age of 90 in 2012.

This year, the UQ law alumni who are leaving for overseas study are:

• Emma Beckinsale (Cambridge)

• Zoe Brereton (Oxford/Cambridge)

• Michael Chen (Oxford)

• Milan Gandhi (Oxford)

• Anna Kretowicz (Oxford)

The details for the 2022 Pat Donovan Dinner are as follows:

• Date - Tuesday, 2 August 2022

• Time - 6.30 pm, for a 7.00 pm start

• Venue - Phoenix, Level 2, Brisbane Quarter, 300 George Street, Brisbane

• Price - $80.00 per person (including a banquet, jasmine tea, and wine)

Tickets for this dinner are available for UQLA Members and their guest.