After graduating, Rowe held the office of Secretary to US Supreme Court Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

[citation needed] In 1941 to 1945, during the Second World War, Rowe undertook double duty as a member of the US Naval Reserve and as US Assistant Attorney General.

[citation needed] Indeed, Rowe played another role before the election; he was a member of the six-men legal team that fought in September 1948 to get Lyndon B. Johnson on the ballot as the Democratic Party's choice as the US Senator from Texas.

The other five members of the elite legal team were Abe Fortas, Thomas Gardiner Corcoran, former 58th U.S. Attorney General, Francis Beverley Biddle, Joseph L. Rauh Jr., and Benjamin Victor Cohen.

[citation needed] Rowe married Elizabeth Holmes Ulman on September 6, 1937, at her parents’ home in Washington, DC.