Dorothy Jean Kitching (formerly Shearer, nee Asher) was an experienced public servant who served three terms as legislative draftsman for The Administration of Norfolk Island: the first was in 1984; the second in 1993; and the third in 2001. For a time she also carried out the role of deputy clerk for the Island. In the 1970s she had been a legal officer in the Office of the Legislative Draftsman, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. After resigning her initial post in Norfolk Island in 1987, she became assistant legislative counsel at the Australian Law Reform Commission in Sydney. She later worked in the Office of Parliamentary Counsel in Darwin. A 1946 law graduate of the University of Sydney, Kitching was admitted to the New South Wales Bar but remained on the list of non-practising barristers throughout her life.

Sources used to compile this entry: New South Wales Law Almanac for 1947, Sydney: Thomas Henry Tennant, Government Printer, 1947, p. 75; 1951, p. 77; 1952, p. 78; 1954, p. 89; 1960, p. 96; 1969, p. 111; 1970, p. 109; 1976, p. 92; The University of Sydney Calendar Supplement 1970, V. C. N. Blight, Government Printer, New South Wales, 1970, p. 136; Law List of Australia and New Zealand 1975, Vol. 62, Sydney: Butterworth, p. 8042; 'The Commonwealth Prisoners Act', Report No 43 Interim, The Law Reform Commission, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1988, https://www.alrc.gov.au/sites/default/files/pdfs/publications/alrc43.pdf, accessed online 13 March 2016; The Ryerson Index (See: 'Kitching, Dorothy Jean', The Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday 25 June 2009, p. 19); Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly - 12th NILA Hansard 25/29 June 2009, p. 983, norfolkisland.gov.nf/la/Hansard/12th%20Assembly%20March%202007/2009_06_25-29.doc, accessed online 8 March 2016  .