Michelle Rowland on the ‘great privilege’ of serving as Attorney-General

Following the election of “such a huge majority” for the second term of the Albanese government, Rowland reflected that she was “so fortunate” to have been selected by the Prime Minister to serve as Attorney-General.

“It’s a great privilege, and also a great challenge. I think the one thing I didn’t appreciate was how integral this role is to the functioning of government overall, and particularly in a term which is the delivery term of this government,” she said.

The comments were made as part of a recent instalment of Legal Firesides, produced exclusively for subscribers of Lawyers Weekly Premium, in which A-G Rowland covered a range of topics, including how the Attorney-General’s Department and the federal government moved to strike the right balance on the newly legislated hate speech laws, and how Australian lawyers can “keep being excellent” in servicing clients.

Rowland started her legal career at BigLaw firm Gilbert + Tobin, which she said “continues to be a great firm today”. She was placed in the firm’s competition and regulation group, which she found to be both a supportive team environment and a great learning curve.

Such an introduction to life as a legal practitioner, she said, “was pivotal to making me the person I am today”. There was also, she added, “a lot of luck in there, too”.

One trait that has stuck with A-G Rowland since those days, and which carries through in her current duties, is prioritising client service and being client-focused.

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“I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a firm that doesn’t put the client first. Questions like how are you servicing your clients best, how are you meeting their needs, and how are you anticipating needs [are questions that] I’ve always really kept with me since my time at G+T,” she said.

“It’s the little things like returning phone calls or emails, being responsive, not making people wait, respecting people’s time, respecting your colleagues’ time, being collegiate, working across different practice areas, that really did help me when going into Parliament.”

Rowland touched on this in her first speech to the House of Representatives in 2010, noting that the skills she picked up at G+T were “really integral” in helping her become a parliamentarian and continue to serve her well, having now been placed into a role that she never anticipated holding.

When asked if serving as Attorney-General was a vocational pathway she had aspired to as a younger lawyer, Rowland described the role as something of a “unicorn”.

It’s the kind of role, she said, “that would be absolutely amazing”, but is one that “you don’t aspire to, because you don’t think it would ever happen”.

Rowland served as Minister for Communications in the first term of the Albanese government, which she described as “really my area of expertise” for two and a half decades. It was, she said, an opportunity she was very fortunate to be given for that three-year period, and one she was looking forward to again undertaking in the current term of Parliament.

Instead, she was offered the Attorney-General portfolio. “I certainly wouldn’t have dreamed that I’d be in this role today,” she said.