[1] After graduating from the law school, Garling worked as an articled clerk and solicitor at David Landa, Stewart & Company.
[3] Garling has been involved in multiple public inquiries and royal commissions, including those into the 1997 Thredbo landslide, the Glenbrook and Waterfall railway accidents, the collapse of the HIH Insurance, and the affairs of the Medical Research and Compensation Foundation.
[7] He served as the Commissioner conducting the Special Commission of Inquiry into Acute Care Services in NSW Public Hospitals, authoring the Garling Report.
[3] At the time of his appointment, brother Max had become a mining entrepreneur; Anthony was a NSW District Court judge; and Kim, a private practice lawyer and former President of the Law Society of New South Wales.
[3] In 1980, Garling married Jane Anne Loneragan,[1] who is a solicitor and was a lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney.