[2] Rees obtained a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Jurisprudence from Monash University where,[3] as an undergraduate, he helped to found the Monash Springvale Community Legal Centre - the first university-based, and now the oldest continually running community legal centre in Australia.
Rees then moved into the public service to become Assistant Director of Policy and Research for the Victorian Attorney-General.
[5] Following this, Rees moved into academia, taking up a position at the University of New South Wales as Director of Legal Education.
In 1991, Professor Rees was appointed foundation Dean at the University of Newcastle Law School.
[6] Rees handed down one of the Commission's most discussed reports in recent years in May 2008, advising the Victorian Government on the decriminalisation of abortion.