Australia’s five most powerful people in law for 2026
by Janek Drevikovsky · Australian Financial ReviewJanek DrevikovskyLegal affairs reporter
Sep 21, 2026 – 5.00am
More years than not, the federal attorney-general tops The Australian Financial Review Magazine's legal power list. That’s where the incumbent, Labor’s Michelle Rowland, placed last year, just a few months after she scored the role when predecessor Mark Dreyfus was dumped in a factional shake-up.
But compared with Dreyfus’ frenetic pace, her approach to legal reform has been slow-going. Her office took nearly 18 months to unveil a draft of its round two privacy reforms, which are worthy but continue a project Dreyfus started. Other flagged changes – to class actions and AI copyright – are still pending. And it was the prime minister, not Rowland, who announced what is probably the government’s biggest current legal initiative – a new “Fair Work Court”. To her credit, Rowland did secure the appointment of Australia’s first female solicitor-general Ruth Higgins, SC. Higgins will have a baptism by fire when she defends the government’s under-16s social media ban in a constitutional challenge brought by Reddit, due to be heard late this year.
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Janek DrevikovskyLegal affairs reporterJanek Drevikovsky is the Financial Review’s legal affairs reporter. Email Janek at jdrevikovsky@nine.com.au
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