Jacqui Payne graduated from the Queensland Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Laws in 1983. The following year, Jacqui commenced her Articles of Clerkship with a Brisbane Commercial firm and, in March 1986, she became the first Aboriginal to be admitted as a Solicitor in Queensland.

Following her three year employment with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service in Brisbane, Jacqui continued to work in the area of criminal defence and in 1996 opened her own criminal law firm. Jacqui was an Official Visitor for the Queensland Corrective Services Commission for 10 years, and was also an Official Visitor for the Queensland Health Departments Mental Health Services. On the first of April 1999, Jacqui was appointed a Magistrate - Queensland’s first indigenous judicial appointment.