Powered by
MOMENTUM
MEDIA
From DJ booths and live gigs to representing some of Australia’s biggest music stars, Julian Hewitt and Rob Glass reveal the unlikely journeys that took them to the top of entertainment law.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, Julian Hewitt and Rob Glass, founding partners of Hewitt Glass, opened up about the unconventional paths that led them from bands, DJ booths, and a passion for music to becoming two of Australia’s leading entertainment lawyers, representing some of the country’s biggest music stars.
Rather than stepping straight into his graduate role at a national law firm, Hewitt put his legal career on hold, moved to Melbourne with a friend and formed a band, initially expecting to spend just six months chasing his passion for music from a bedroom studio.
“I did a law/commerce degree in Perth at UWA and had a job with one of the national firms as a grad that I deferred,” Hewitt said.
“I started a band with a friend who moved to Melbourne from Perth, made a record in a bedroom with someone, and sort of was really enjoying that kind of six months.”
But what began as a short break from the law quickly gathered momentum, with Hewitt describing a stroke of “serendipity” as record labels began taking notice of the band and opportunities to showcase their music overseas started to emerge.
“My six-month deferral was coming around, and I deferred for another six months, and they were very clear that that was my last permitted deferral,” Hewitt said.
“So came back to Perth, finished that in the studio and just by pure serendipity, a whole bunch of things happened, and a lot of labels were interested in the act, and we got in the UK to showcase all the majors over there and that kind of stuff.”
With the band gaining traction, Hewitt made a decision that would send his legal career in an entirely different direction – walking away from his graduate role before he had even started it and spending much of his 20s chasing a career in music.
“I looked at it, and I asked my dad. I was like, I don’t think I’m going to start this job. He’s like, well, you got to do what you got to do,” Hewitt said.
“So I retired before I started as a lawyer, and then sort of played music in a couple of different bands through the majority of my 20s.”
But as his late 20s rolled around, the dream of making it big in music began to fade, leaving Hewitt at a crossroads and wondering what would come next.
“It really wasn’t until the later half of my 20s that I realised that it wasn’t going to get to the level of success that I kind of hoped for, and I was wondering what I was going to do,” Hewitt said.
“I went and had a coffee with my band then lawyer, when I was living in Melbourne, not with a view to getting a job, really, just saying, ah, I’m sort of basically unemployed, and I want to do something in the creative commercial field that is linked to music.”
Hewitt recalled how the casual coffee catch-up unexpectedly opened the door to a new career, giving him a foothold in the legal world while allowing him to remain firmly connected to the creative industry he knew so well.
“I knew he knew lots of people, so I just kind of picked his brain, and if anyone interesting came across his desk to think of me, he said, ‘I’ll do all that, but in the meantime, do you want to come and do a bit of overflow work for me?’” Hewitt said.
“I was like, OK, I’ve got nothing else to do in terms of making a living and paying rent. So I did a few days a week with him.”
With music law still a relatively untapped field for lawyers of his generation, Hewitt found himself in the right place at the right time, carving out a rare position as a lawyer for a new wave of Australian artists and labels just as their careers began to take off.
“There wasn’t really anyone else practising law in Australia or music law in my kind of age … so I guess by serendipity or by luck ended up picking up lots of those acts and represent lots of those labels and people that are my age,” Hewitt said.
“The label Future Classic and I represent Chet Faker and Flume and all those artists, and Boy & Bear was like my first-ever client of any known back in 2009, and by virtue of that, I started to get excited about the space.”
For Glass, the connection between law and entertainment was forged long before he entered either profession, having grown up in a family deeply immersed in the arts and creative industries.
“I grew up in a family where, I guess, there was a lot of interest and focus on the arts and creative industries,” Glass said.
“My dad was a big supporter of the visual arts, big art collector, owned an art gallery at one point. My mother was a singer. So, I grew up surrounded by music and art, so that obviously informed my creative interests.”
As his love of music grew, Glass shared how he discovered a passion for DJing and began setting his sights on a future in the music industry.
“As I grew up, my interest in music developed. Like all parents, I started playing piano and swiftly moved on to a pair of turntables when I was about 13 or 14 years old, and I was interested in DJing and wanted to work in music,” Glass said.
While Glass was ready to leave school behind and pursue a career as a DJ, he revealed how his father had other ideas, steering him towards a law degree that could ultimately support his passion for the music industry.
“I was keen to leave school early and pursue a career as a DJ. I received some wise counsel from my father, which was that I should also get a degree that might support that interest in the music business,” Glass said.
“He suggested law, and my first negotiation was at the age of 17, when I said, well, if I get into law school a year early before school finishes, I think you need to pay my university fees. That went down well.”
