The first time I met Quentin Bryce, I was a scruffy 17-year-old law student decked out in the obligatory undergraduate attire of T-shirt and football shorts. I was one of the generation of University of Queensland students who had their introduction to criminal law in her tutorials. Fast forward nearly four decades, and I am sitting across from her at the ornate writing table in the drawing room of Government House, subscribing the oath of office as Attorney-General and Minister for the Arts.