Lawyer and academic Deborah Cass, daughter of politician Moss Cass and Shirley Cass, studied arts and law at the University of Melbourne. While at university, she co-edited the student newspaper Farrago, and her first short story, 'A Measured Breakfast', was published in the Australian.
Cass completed a doctorate in law at Harvard University, won the Caltex National Woman Graduate of the Year scholarship, and then took up an associate professorship at the London School of Economics and published widely in the field of law.
Cass returned to Australia in 2006 when she was diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer.
Possibly Cass's final piece of published creative writing, the short story 'Her Beauty as a Sword', appeared in Etchings in 2011.
In 2021, ANU Press released Traversing the Divide : Honouring Deborah Cass's Contributions to Public and International Law, including chapters from a number of law academics.
Source: James Button, 'Academic, Author Who Saw Law as a Means to Change the World', Age (22 July 2013): 38.
