Monash Law Alumni celebrate 50 years of friendship
In 2024, Monash Law is celebrating 60 years of creating legal innovators, impactful research and increasing access to justice. At the same time, some of those legal innovators are celebrating milestones of their own.
Robyn Campbell and Tim North both attended orientation day at Monash Law in early 1974 and they are celebrating 50 years of connection this year. Beyond the Monash Law alumni network, Robyn and Tim have maintained a strong friendship with each other and many other graduates.
They’ve also enjoyed a strong connection with Monash Law throughout the decades.
“I've been involved with Monash Law, with recruitment of graduates, since I graduated from Monash Law myself - either as an employer or as an advisor. I've always had a relationship with Monash.”
Robyn Campbell’s alternative Law career
“I'm in an alternative law career because I worked in human resources rather than practising law. Within that field, a law degree has always been of assistance. So, I've always been involved somehow,” explains Robyn.
Robyn Campbell has worked in the public sector, private sector, university sector and now runs her own business.
“It was the early days of people management rather than personnel when I began and I was probably the first HR manager with a law degree in a large firm.”
That large firm was Clayton Utz, which grew from a base of around 75 staff in Melbourne when Robyn started to around 2000 nationally when she was National HR Director.
“I’ve worked in a large law firm as the National Director of HR at Clayton Utz, and subsequently I’ve worked with legal people as individuals, in firms and for corporates in career management.”
“I loved it. I've had hundreds and hundreds of what were then called articled clerks, who have gone on to bigger and better things. It's great going back and seeing what they've done in their careers. I think that's probably my biggest satisfaction,” smiles Robyn.
She now describes her current role as ‘fading out’ to retirement while helping people with career transitioning and career path management. One person who might dispute the degree of fading out is her friend of 50 years Tim North OAM KC.
Tim North OAM KC
Tim North’s career began with a message on a noticeboard at Monash Law. No, not in the Law School Gazette email, or even the printed yellow version of the Law School Gazette, but a card on an actual notice board that was held up with pins.
He’d completed his Articles and was wandering through the Monash Law building foyer when he saw an ad for an associate position with the late judge Ken Marks (1924-2005).
“Justice Marks was a colourful character who had been a bomber pilot in the Second World War and flew in the Battle of Britain, so he wasn't much for the rigour of doing things by tradition. In those days in the profession there were mostly old, male, warrant officer type associates that were friends of the judge,” reveals Tim.
Breaking with tradition, Justice Marks thought a Monash Law graduate would make a good associate, so he pinned his hopes to the noticeboard at Clayton campus. Tim went to an interview in the Supreme Court, was offered the job and spent the next two years in a world he’d previously thought was sacrosanct.
“I didn't know much about the way in which the legal profession operates and didn't have much family connection into the law,” recalls Tim.
Tim’s appointment as a graduate associate may, or may not, have broken the mould, but these days, almost all judges have two associates and almost all of them are graduates. He recommends the role of graduate associate as an excellent foundation for practising law.
“You learn all about how the court worked. You learn who's the relevant person to talk to,” he remembers.
Robyn Campbell and Tim North on graduation day in 1979
Robyn Campbell and Tim North OAM KC in 2024
Monash Law Alumni networks increase as career progresses
After a couple of years as a judge’s associate, Tim went to the Bar and began practising law where he encountered many of his fellow Monash Law alumni.
“Sometimes we were opposed to each other, but most of the time it's a very collegiate atmosphere where I work.”
Tim read with the Hon Peter Heerey AM QC (1939-2021) who later became a judge of the Federal Court of Australia from 1990 to 2009.
“He shared a lot of interests with me and he had lots of Readers, so I did too. I’ve had 15 Readers so far - a lot of successful men and women, some of whom I'm now appearing in front of, which is pretty unusual.”
Another feature of Tim North’s legal career is that some of those students who started at Monash Law with him and Robyn in 1974 are now judges.
“Judicial appointment seems to isolate you a little bit because if you do appearances in front of them, you can't be socialising at the same time.”
Alumni take pride in giving back to Monash Law
As their careers have progressed and their capacity to give back to Monash Law has grown, both Tim and Robyn have sponsored annual prizes for undergraduate and postgraduate Law students.
“I got involved because I was worried that so many prizes weren't sponsored. I was working at Clayton Utz and we sponsored prizes, but I realised that as the number of law schools increased around Australia, the number of law firms sponsoring prizes reduced.
“I thought a solution would be for individuals or groups to do that,” suggests Robyn.
Like Robyn, Tim has also been a long time and regular supporter of Monash Law’s Undergraduate and Postgraduate Prize ceremonies because he says with tongue in cheek, “Robyn told me I had too.” While both laugh at this suggestion, they agree that being in the room to meet the winners and next generation of legal innovators is an inspiring experience.
“I like to meet the prize winners and see if we can help them or connect them with other people. I just think it's a great thing to do and sometimes see how their careers progress. It’s all about giving back,” says Robyn.
“Given the opportunities we had, I think we've got an obligation to give back. I think it catches on if one person does it and then tells somebody else, then hopefully that's catching for others.”
There’s no doubt that supporting young Monash Law graduates takes these two alumni back to their early days at Law School.
“My dad always said a law degree will open doors, no matter what you do. And he was so right,” reflects Robyn.
Memories of Monash Law in 1974
So what was it like to study law at Monash University half a century ago?
“There were very few women when we were going through, probably around 10 per cent compared to the 60 per cent Monash Law has now,” reveals Robyn.
In fact, Robyn was one of only a few from her single sex school to study Law in that year.
“My Legal Process class would have had around 40 people and there would have been only 5 or 6 women.”
“Whilst I was the only one from my school who did law, there were a number of my school friends who were at Monash University, who then became friends of the fellows in my classes,” says Robyn.
For Tim as well, those student days at Monash Law played a key role in the relationships he would take into his career.
“The best part of uni is the friendships. They're golden times, spending five years together and doing the day to day work in libraries or preparing for exams - you get to know everybody,” confirms Tim.
One of the greatest motivating factors for developing friendships was also one of the greatest challenges of studying at Monash University in 1974 - its remote location.
“Because you went out to Monash and you were stuck there really for the whole day. We'd work the whole of summer to pay for the year because it was so hard to get out to Monash from wherever we all lived. And many of us didn’t have drivers’ licences or cars,” recalls Robyn.
The location-related challenges inspired ingenuity and a resilience that enabled them to go the distance for both education and recreation.
“We got involved with the Law Students’ Society. That was an excuse for having dances out the front of the law school just to let your hair down a bit,” shares Tim.
“Remember the mystery destination balls where we always ended up at Werribee? We caught the train - it was always the train to Werribee. All those Law Balls were fantastic fun,” says Robyn.
As they think back to their days on the Clayton Campus, both Robyn and Tim fondly remember lecturers and tutors including David Allen, Emeritus Professor Arie Freiberg, Lawrie McCredie CBE AM, Gerard Nash KC, Emeritus Professor HP Lee and Emeritus Professor Louis Waller.
“With Louis Waller, you went to his lectures in that gigantic room where the Moot Court is now, and it was a theatrical experience,” exclaims Robyn.
“He would go through a case and it was like a drama and it was just fantastic. It was such an awe inspiring experience going to one of his lectures. They were really, really wonderful.”
Tim also studied under Professor Enid Campbell with now Interim Dean, Faculty of Law, Marilyn Pittard as tutor.
Perhaps the most revealing memory from these 50 year strong Monash Law alumni is how you might have tracked down fellow students, decades before the mobile phone.
Monash Law is famous for its law library, but as Tim explains, back in 1974 it wasn’t just the rare textbooks that were in demand - the library’s wooden cubicle desks were also coveted.
“There was a territorial imperative to sit in the same seat most of the time,” explains Tim.
In fact, Tim and Robyn can still remember who was sitting where in the library and who had the best notes.
“People would know where you were in the library, so if you wanted to talk to someone, or they were in the same tute or lecture and you needed some notes - you'd know where they were. The library was a fantastic resource,” reveals Tim.
Monash Law has grown rapidly from our humble beginnings as the first new Law School in Victoria in over a century. Today, Monash Law provides scholarships for students experiencing disadvantage. We enable rich student experiences like travel and internships. And we support research that positively influences the laws and policies that affect us all.
Both Robyn Campbell and Tim North have made donations as part of a group or as individuals to support the annual Undergraduate and Postgraduate Prize Ceremonies.
We wouldn't be the leading legal education institution we are today without the generous support of our donors and the strong connections of our Monash Law alumni. With your support, we can continue to provide a world-leading education for students and positively impact the communities in which we work.
If you’d like to find out how you can support student prizes in 2024, please contact our Industry and Engagement Manager.
We encourage alumni to reconnect with Monash Law and we’d love to hear your memories, experiences and especially your enduring connections with Monash Law alumni through the decades. If you’d like to share your Monash Law memories with us, please email us, or reach out on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or X with the hashtag #MonashLaw.