Kim graduated from the University of Victoria in 1999, with a double major in Biochemistry and Environmental Studies. She subsequently completed her law degree at the University of Victoria; during her degree she obtained her first criminal law experiences at Legal Aid clinics in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. After being called to the bar in 2005, Kim completed a two year clerkship with the Territorial and Supreme Courts of Yukon. She was then accepted into the Canadian Bar Association's International Human Rights Internship Programme, and spent the following year and a half at the Legal Resources Centre, South Africa's premier human rights legal organization. Ms. Hawkins returned to the Yukon Territory in 2009, and after several months of working as an investigator at the Yukon Human Rights Commission, she came full circle and returned to Yukon Legal Aid as a staff lawyer. She now practices criminal law, including representing clients in remote circuit courts, as well as family law. She is currently working towards a Masters in International Human Rights Law through a two-year distance program at the University of Oxford, UK.