Heesh's documented formation took place in Sydney, New South Wales, the state capital and Australia's largest city. Her undergraduate and legal studies were carried out at the University of Sydney, which made the city the centre of her education and early professional life.
Her career developed within the Sydney legal profession, where many commercial and community law practices were concentrated during her working years.
Heesh studied at the University of Sydney, completing a Bachelor of Arts in 1977 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1979. She later returned to the university for a Master of Laws, completed in 1994, so that her legal training spanned both her first degree and a postgraduate qualification at the same institution.
Founded in 1850, the University of Sydney was the first university established in Australia. Her law degree of 1979 preceded her admission to the bar in Australia in the same year.
Her association with the university also extended to Sancta Sophia College, a residential college on the Camperdown campus with a Catholic foundation that admits students of all religions. The college was founded in 1925 as a hall of residence for Catholic women and was raised to the status of a college within the University of Sydney in 1929. Heesh later served on the college council for 21 years, ten of them as chair, and in 2016 the college included her among its notable alumni.
Heesh was admitted to the bar in Australia in 1979, the year she completed her Bachelor of Laws at the University of Sydney. Her early professional work included a partnership at Phillips Fox, an Australian national law firm. In 2006 Phillips Fox entered an exclusive alliance with the international firm DLA Piper, and in 2011 the Australian practice integrated with DLA Piper to become DLA Piper Australia.
Heesh joined Carroll & O'Dea Lawyers in 2009 as an associate and became a partner in 2015. The firm was founded in Sydney in 1899, when J. J. Carroll set up practice on Elizabeth Street, and it merged with the practice of Cecil O'Dea in 1940. Today it has a Sydney headquarters and offices across New South Wales and in Melbourne and Hobart.
At Carroll & O'Dea she chairs the firm's not-for-profit practice group and supervises publication of its community and associations newsletter. Her work covers estate planning, wills, property and asset dealings, and the legal and practical structures through which philanthropic and charitable organisations are established. In her not-for-profit work she designs governance and management systems, advises on tax issues, and advises clients on the rules of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, the national regulator of charities.
(Issue of the Carroll & O'Dea Lawyers estate planning and ...)
2015
Heesh is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a professional body for company directors and governance practitioners in Australia. She joined the institute as a graduate member in November 2016.
Her service on boards and councils includes the Sancta Sophia College Council at the University of Sydney, which governs a residential college for women and postgraduate students. She served on the council for 21 years, completing that period in 2015, and was its chair for ten of those years.
Her other board roles include past membership of the board of The Catholic Weekly, the Sydney Catholic newspaper, and of the board of Kincoppal-Rose Bay School, a Sacred Heart girls' school in Sydney. She was also a past inaugural member of the company board of the Broken Bay Institute. She is currently a director of North Sydney Retirement Trust, which operates James Milson Village at North Sydney and Woolwich, and a member of the management committee of OLSH Overseas Aid Incorporated.
Graduate Member
Australian Institute of Company Directors , Australia
November, 2016
Member for 21 years, completed in 2015, including ten years as chair
Sancta Sophia College Council, University of Sydney , Australia
1994
Former board member
The Catholic Weekly , Australia
Former board member
Kincoppal-Rose Bay School , Australia
Past inaugural member of the company board
Broken Bay Institute , Australia
Director
North Sydney Retirement Trust , Australia
Member of the management committee
OLSH Overseas Aid Incorporated , Australia
