There was no certainty that Ms Orr's decision to put her private practice on hold for a year would be a successful career move.

Other barristers who worked for or ran similar inquiries say clients turn to other lawyers and often don't come back. There is a danger in making powerful enemies too, whether in business or politics, who can block future work or judicial appointments.

When another barrister messed up a question in the banking royal commission, someone shared the video clip around legal circles. Regular court hearings aren't televised on the internet.

"A lawyer who takes on big jobs can expect some adverse professional consequences," says Ian Temby, QC, who oversaw a royal commission into West Australian finance broking fraud in 2001 and was the first commissioner of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. "It would be juvenile to say otherwise."

The work is reliable, until it ends, but barristers usually take a pay cut. An industry rule of thumb holds that government work pays half what's available from the private sector.

'Name her price'

Orr should be able to quickly make up any income deficit. Dubbed "Shock and Orr" by the press, she's likely to attract star-struck clients with her sudden fame, lawyers say.


"Someone like Rowena Orr, who is notably young and wasn't that well-known before, you would think she could now name her price as counsel," says Margaret Cunneen, SC, a NSW public prosecutor frequently in the public eye.

Orr wouldn't discuss her career ambitions or disclose her age. University of Queensland records state she graduated with law and economics degrees in 1996, which suggests she is in her mid 40s. She has been a barrister since 2002 and senior counsel since 2014.

Ironically, Orr wasn't a banking or finance specialist. Many of her pre-royal commission cases involved crime, trade practices law and administrative law, which regulates government decisions.

A comedown

Lawyers who have worked on similar inquiries report suffering a common malaise when they finish: day-to-day court appearances can't match the adrenalin and intellectual stimulation of nation-changing public inquiries.

"I think she will suffer the same feeling that I had that returning to regular practice feels a little unsatisfying," says Angus Stewart, SC, a barrister who worked part-time for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

"I am hoping she gets back and on with a fantastic career. But it's not as simple as it sounds."


Last year Orr defended food maker Heinz, which had promoted snacks for toddlers using the label "99% fruit and veg". The products contained around two-thirds sugar.

Ms Orr's decision to take on the role of counsel assisting the royal commission was not guaranteed to be a successful career move. David Rowe

Orr told a Federal Court judge ordinary people wouldn't understand what nutritional value was. She lost.

Personal cost

Geoffrey Watson, QC, exposed corrupt behaviour by the Obeid family and others in NSW's ICAC. Someone tried to kill his labrador, Indy, and intimidate his wife on the street.

Returning to insurance claims was challenging after the excitement of taking down one of Australia's most notorious politicians. "You come back to your usual work and it just feels so unimportant," he says.

He is now one of the leading barristers fighting in court for the removal of asylum-seeker children from Nauru, which he does not charge for.

Barristers who have worked on public inquiries frequently become judges. Margaret Cunneen conducted a commission of inquiry for the NSW government into police handling of child sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic church.


Of her three counsels assisting, one was appointed to the NSW Supreme Court, another to the state District Court and a third was made a Crown advocate, a lawyer who represents the state in important court cases.

"It invariably changes your professional life," Cunneen says. "Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse."

Going to the bench?

A new Labor government might look favourably upon Orr, whose performance helped vindicate the party's years-long push for a banking royal commission.

"In a year or two she will be a judge," Watson says.

Labor's shadow Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, didn't respond to a request for comment.

Peter Gray, SC, a Melbourne barrister who has worked on cases with Orr, says he isn't surprised about the inter-state judicial speculation.

"Rowena is indisputably a star who exemplifies all that is best about the bar," he says.