Rodd's documented career is rooted in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, where he studied law and later worked as a lawyer. His admission to the bar in Victoria in 1979 placed his professional life within the state's legal profession. Monash University, which he attended for his law degrees, is situated in the Melbourne area and established its own law school in the 1960s.
Rodd studied law at Monash University, where he qualified with a Bachelor of Jurisprudence and a Bachelor of Laws. Monash was established by an Act of the Victorian Parliament in 1958, following a period of rapid population growth and industrial demand in post-war Australia. Its first students began their studies at the Clayton campus in 1961, and the university was originally oriented toward science and technology.
The university's law school was not one of its foundation faculties. It was created in 1964 because Melbourne Law School, then the only law school in Melbourne, could no longer meet the rising demand for legal education. The new faculty gave Victoria a second law school alongside the University of Melbourne's.
His admission to the bar in Victoria in 1979 followed his legal education.
Rodd was admitted to the bar in Victoria in 1979 and subsequently worked as a partner of Phillips Fox, an Australian law firm. In later years Phillips Fox had partners in Brisbane as well as Melbourne, reflecting a practice that extended beyond Victoria.
The firm changed its identity in late 2006, when an alliance with the global firm DLA Piper led it to operate as DLA Phillips Fox. The Australian partnership was absorbed into DLA Piper on 1 May 2011, when it became part of DLA Piper's international partnership.
