Annette Rubinstein has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Monash University, 1979 and a Bachelor of Law (Hons), Monash University, 1987. Her honours law thesis was 'The Liability of Bodies Possessing Statutory Powers for Negligent Failure to Avert Harm' (1986). Rubinstein has worked in the Legal Policy and Research Department of the Victorian Attorney General's Department and practised at the Victorian Bar in the general commercial area. She joined Phillips Ormonde & Fitzpatrick in 2000 and has extensive experience in the commercial aspects of intellectual property law and in copyright and trade mark infringement matters.
Rubinstein is the author of the chapter on 'Copyright' in The Law Handbook, published by the Fitzroy Legal Service, and has written other legal works on workers' compensation.. She has also written The Cook (1980), a feminist career guide for children, and revised Jennifer Pausacker's Sugar and Snails : a Countersexist Booklist (1977). Rubinstein also wrote 'Subtle Poison: the Puerperal Fever Controversy in Victorian Britain', Historical Studies 20 (April 1983): 420-438.