Rose Anne (Roisin) Kearns came to Australia with her Irish family in the 1940s, and her father established a dental practice in Rockhampton.

In 1953 she left Stuartholme College, and being of decidedly independent spirit, enrolled in a BA/LLB at the University of Queensland. From 1954 she was a member of Duchesne College, then situated at New Farm.

She graduated in Arts in 1959 and in 1960 she was one of the first women in Queensland to graduate with a Law degree. For a few years she practised as a solicitor with Tully and Wilson in Creek Street (now Corrs Chambers Westgarth). In that capacity she was renowned for her jousts over draft orders with the staff of the Supreme Court Registry.

Undaunted, she then spent a few years practising law in Hong Kong. In the late 1960s she returned to London where she obtained a Master of Laws degree from the University of London. She served as a senior legal officer in the Social Security Department until the 1990s.

Now retired, she distributes her time and her hospitality to old Brisbane colleagues, between her cottages in London and the village of Tinahely, County Wicklow, Eire.