Early in his career, Rofe worked as a counsel assisting the Coroner before he joined the Crown Prosecutor's Office in 1977.
During his career as a prosecutor, Rofe successfully prosecuted some of South Australia's most notorious murder trials, including Bevan Spencer von Einem, Henry Keogh, and David Szach.
Controversy erupted in February 2003 over revelations by Channel 7's Today Tonight program that during office hours, he had visited a TAB betting shop, or bought ‘scratchies’ up to 17 times in one day.
This led to a confrontation with the Government in which he was directed by the Attorney-General to appeal the leniency of the sentence imposed upon Nemer for shooting a newspaper delivery man in 2002.
In his report, issued in April 2004, the Solicitor-General found that some aspects of Mr Rofe's handling of the conduct of the prosecution of Nemer were ‘inept’.