Jennifer Robinson on the responsibility of using privilege to lead

Jennifer Robinson is quick to credit educational privilege and a sense of adventure as the foundation steps in her path to career success.

The former Australian National University graduate-turned leading human rights lawyer has a vast and awe-inspiring list of professional highlights. 

She’s worked as legal counsel to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, represented the liberation movement in West Papua, advised women and journalists in the #MeToo movement and represented American actress Amber Heard in successfully defending Johnny Depp’s defamation case in the United Kingdom. 

Yet, despite her talent and high-profile, the 42-year-old Rhodes Scholar is refreshingly humble about her achievements to date. 

Jen Robinson (right) alongside actress Amber Heard and her sister Whitney Henriquez (second right), as she gives a statement outside the High Court in London on the final day of hearings in Johnny Depp’s libel case against the publishers of The Sun.

In a wide-ranging interview with FW Leadership Series podcast host, Helen McCabe, Robinson balks at the suggestion that she’s one of Australia’s most successful ex-pats.

“’I’m not sure that’s how I describe myself,” she says.

“But I am a very proud product of public education in Australia. So I want to acknowledge the fact that I wouldn’t be where I am without quality, well funded public education. That’s why it’s so important that we keep it so that kids that come from backgrounds like me, get to do things like what I’m doing.” 

Growing up in Berry, a small country town two hours south of Sydney’s CBD, Robinson’s mother worked as a school teacher and her father trained racing horses. 

Despite witnessing little of the wider world, Robinson remembers having a drive and a passion to help others from a young age.

“I was really inspired and motivated by what I saw happen in East Timor, everybody will remember when Australia led the UN peacekeeping force to put an end to Indonesian war crimes in East Timor and that sort of sparked my interest in international law and international human rights,” she says. 

“I wanted to use my skills to help. And so it was just this drive about wanting to improve things, wanting to make the world better. I know that sounds a bit sort of cliche, but it’s true.” 

When she was 16 she went on a school trip to Indonesia. It proved transformative.

“I just was so curious about the world. So I really wanted to get out and about but when you live in a little tiny town where most people in my family didn’t even have a passport that seemed very far away, and unachievable,” she says.

“So my drive was very much about… I want to travel the world, I want to contribute to making the world better. How do I do that? And for me, it was a lot of really hard work.”

In response to McCabe’s question as to how she managed to retain her youthful energy for changing the world, Robinson said it was linked to social justice, faith and family.

“I come from a big Catholic family and I really think that was part of the ethos, it was like that sort of Catholic social justice,” she says. 

“That to me is all about sort of creating a path behind us and making it easier for those who come behind us. And I feel a great sense of responsibility about that.”

“I was brought up with that ethos, it was very much a part of who I am. And I think who my family is, while they’re not human rights lawyers, you know, they’re so supportive of what I do. It really comes out of the ethos of our family… I just had this drive for it, I’m so motivated by injustice, it really gets me and the sense of wanting to continue to push the mantle against injustice and against abuse of power and against inequality and that, really, it’s so rewarding.”

Witnessing such widespread disadvantage has made Robinson especially conscious of how fortunate her own life has been and it fuels her ambition to fight the good fight. She concedes this began in earnest in an historically unlikely place. 

“Being a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, that is a very privileged scholarship, which has quite a dark history,” she says. 

“I like the fact that the scholarship of the generation that I was there was very much of the ethos of… our motto is ‘fighting the world’s fight’. And I feel a great sense of responsibility of living up to that motto and using the educational privilege that I have to make the world better, to make Australia better, to at least try.”

Image credits: Instagram @suigenerisjen

She is also mindful to ensure she uses her privileged position to help people less fortunate and to pay it forward so others follow her path.

“I set up a global human rights program to support young lawyers in this work because so many people want to do this work.” she says.

“I also set up a scholarship for kids in this country to help kids from public schools and create mentorship and financial opportunities to help them get to where they can be, and should be. And that to me is all about sort of creating a path behind us and making it easier for those who come behind us. And I feel a great sense of responsibility about that.”

Robinson is quick to add that her success has not been without challenges.

“It’s not an easy, straightforward path,” she says. 

“I had a Rhodes scholarship that put me on this path, and made some very difficult decisions about not taking bigger salaries so that I could continue on this path and it paid off. But it’s difficult. So I’ve been trying to show people the way forward and create more opportunities for people to do it.” 

Asked about leadership in her career, Robinson admits the word has many meanings.

“It’s showing leadership in the law… and I’m so grateful to work with so many remarkable lawyers at Doughty Street Chambers in London who are really pioneering and pushing the law towards more just outcomes. And that’s leadership. That’s leadership in the law,” she says. 

“I also think it’s important to play a leadership role in thought leadership around human rights issues and advocacy. So taking the time to advocate publicly on what needs to change and why it needs to change.” 

As for trust, Robinson describes it as a “professional obligation”. 

“As a lawyer, you must have the faith and confidence of your client and so building trust with the client is absolutely essential in your ability to act for them,” she says. 

“For me, building trust as a legal professional is about doing the work. It’s about knowing what you’re doing, and doing it well and continually doing it well.”