Ronald Salter studied law at the University of Melbourne, where he earned the Bachelor of Laws degree. The university was founded in 1853 as the first university in the colony of Victoria and has long been a principal centre of legal education in the state.
His law degree preceded his admission to practice in Victoria in 1964, which marked the transition from academic legal training to professional practice.
Ronald Salter was admitted in Victoria in 1964 and later became a partner of Phillips Fox, a Melbourne law firm. Its origins lay in Phillips Fox & Masel, an established Melbourne practice. The collective Phillips Fox name, used from 1985 to 2006, represented an association of firms that sought to serve clients beyond state and national boundaries, and the firm was described as Australia's first national law firm.
During this period the firm absorbed other practices, including Majteles Salmon in 1998 and the insolvency practice of Hely Edgar in 1999. In 2011 the global firm DLA Piper absorbed the Australian practice, ending the Phillips Fox name.
