Before entering the legal profession, former Sydneysider Karen Robson had a brief career as an actress, including a major role in the 1975 cult favourite Picnic at Hanging Rock.

“Yes, my famous acting career. Well, I was in really one film in my life. It just happens to be a very sort of famous film in Australian film history, and it has been an extraordinary thing that has followed me my entire career,” she says.

Despite the critical and commercial success of the film, Robson did not continue acting. Only a month after filming ended, Robson began studying law and arts at the University of Sydney.

“There was one other film that I really wanted, which was My Brilliant Career, which Judy Davis did, and I was not really a very experienced actor, and I did not get that role, and I just thought, you know what? I think I’ll just go to university.”

Nevertheless, of Picnic at Hanging Rock’s cast, Robson, now 67, is the only one who went on to find real success in Hollywood.

In 1981, a freshly graduated Robson started in the defamation and media section of Mallesons’ Sydney office. Immediately thrown in the deep end, she worked with the likes of media mogul and former owner of The Australian Financial Review John Fairfax and now-retired radio announcer John Laws. She also worked on contract negotiations for the 1985’s Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome.

“That’s when I thought, I really want to go to the US because nobody here knows how to do this American style.”

Robson headed to New York in the mid-’80s to take on a role with white-shoe law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as a corporate lawyer. One of the first matters Robson worked on was the sale to Rupert Murdoch of some television stations that became the Fox Network.

“Because I was Australian, I think they thought, I must know something about Mr Murdoch.”

Looking to broaden her work beyond corporate matters, Robson applied to Pryor Cashman – a smaller firm but one with an entertainment practice. In 1991, Robson became the firm’s first female partner and in 2003 founded the firm’s Los Angeles office, where she practises today.

LA law

The media and entertainment landscape is in upheaval worldwide but perhaps nowhere more so than in Hollywood.

“Lots of money was pouring in from Netflix and Apple and Amazon to make all these wonderful television series and feature films – some huge films got financed, like The Irishman with Martin Scorsese. But after that came the writers’ strike and the SAG strike, which really put a brake on everything again. And one of the biggest issues in that strike was artificial intelligence.”

I’m told the really interesting matters Robson has worked on are confidential. But as an example, she recounts her pursuit of Leonardo DiCaprio for the role of Patrick Bateman in 2000’s American Psycho.

“I spent the entire Cannes Film Festival running around after his lawyers and agents, and then trying to make a deal with him, flying in helicopters to where he was supposed to be,” she says.

“Ultimately, we did not make the deal, which is actually a great thing because the film was terrific.”

The family business

Robson is unable (and unwilling) to restrict show business to her professional life, and it has become a family affair.

“My husband is from Iran, and he is a filmmaker, and he makes independent films, documentaries, and features. My daughter recently graduated from AFI with a master’s in cinematography,” she says.

“My son just graduated from UCLA, so he’s not yet in the film business, and I’m not sure he will be – he’s more into sports.”

Forty years after leaving Sydney, Robson has not lost her connection to Australia. She sits on the board of the University of Sydney Foundation as well as the non-profit Australians in Film, which supports Australian screen talent through a yearly scholarship named after Heath Ledger awarded to an up-and-coming actor.

“In my later career here, I’ve turned back to look at Australia again, and, you know, once you’re Australian, you’re always Australian.”