Ronald Eilenberg's documented professional life is centred on Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria, where he trained in law and practised. The University of Melbourne, where he studied law, was made possible by the wealth generated by Victoria's gold rush. Its law school, established in 1857, was the first law course in Australia.
Eilenberg's university education includes a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne. The university's original buildings were opened in 1855, and its law school was founded in 1857 at the Parkville campus, following which the university expanded into engineering and medicine.
Melbourne Law School combined scholarly teaching of legal principles with preparation for legal practice, and Victoria soon became one of the first common-law jurisdictions in which lawyers had to complete part of their training at university. The Bachelor of Laws was the school's first-degree course for students seeking a first qualification in law. The school stopped admitting students to that program after the 2007 intake and moved to the Juris Doctor from 2008.
Eilenberg was admitted to the bar in Victoria in 1948. Melbourne was the centre of legal practice in the state, and during the 1970s and 1980s, when national law firms began emerging, the city was regarded as the principal place for banking, finance and mergers and acquisitions lawyers.
Eilenberg worked as a partner of Westgarth Middletons in Melbourne. The Sydney firm Westgarth Middletons was one of three firms that merged in 1991 to form Corrs Chambers Westgarth, alongside Corrs Australian Solicitors and Chambers McNab Tully and Wilson of Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
