Ruth C. A. Higgins graduated with first class honours in law from Glasgow University in 1995, as joint winner of the Dr John MacCormick Prize for the Most Distinguished Graduate in Law and winner of the Bennet Miller Prize for Private Law. Between 1996 and 2000, she undertook her DPhil at Balliol College, Oxford, on a Snell Scholarship. During this time she held a lectureship in law at Corpus Christi College and spent time as a visiting scholar at Columbia University, New York. She currently works in the Competition & Regulation department of the Sydney law firm Gilbert & Tobin.