Two generations, one VU connection: Laura & Mary Kane's story

Today, Laura Kane is the AFL’s Executive General Manager of AFLW, Health and Football Operations – one of the most influential leadership positions in Australian sport. Tasked with helping shape the future of AFLW, Laura is expanding opportunities for female athletes, and inspiring future generations of women and girls to see a place for themselves in the game. 

Her mother, Mary Kane, followed a very different path. After years in the workforce, Mary returned to study law before entering legal practice aged 60. She now works as a prosecutor for the Bass Coast Shire Council, frequently appearing before the Magistrates' Court and VCAT while mentoring others considering higher education later in life. 

While their careers have taken them in very different directions, both share a common foundation: a Victoria University law degree. 

As Victoria University celebrates 110 years of transforming lives through education, Laura and Mary's story demonstrates how learning can create opportunities across generations. Their shared connection to VU has not only shaped their professional journeys, but also added a new dimension to their relationship, transforming them from mother and daughter into fellow alumni with a unique understanding of each other's experiences. 

Long before their careers took shape, Laura and Mary shared a common ambition: a passion for law and a desire to make a difference. 

For Laura, the journey began in Year 10 when she secured a work experience placement at the Supreme Court through Victoria Legal Aid. "I was able to sit through the entirety of a trial," she recalls. "I loved it." 

The experience cemented her interest in the law and ultimately led her to VU, where practical advocacy training, partnerships with Victoria Legal Aid and the Magistrates' Court, and opportunities to study overseas all stood out. 

For Mary, law had also been an interest since high school, but one she had never imagined turning into a career. "I always thought there wasn't an entry into study or a career in the law for me," she says. 

Watching Laura complete her degree changed that perception. 

I was able to see from Laura's experience that VU offered a pathway.

With recognition of prior learning and flexible study options, VU made it possible for Mary to balance work and study while pursuing a goal she had held for decades. 

Although Laura and Mary never sat beside each other in a lecture theatre, their VU experiences often felt remarkably intertwined. 

Laura graduated in 2013. Three years later, Mary began her own law degree, stepping into many of the same classrooms, studying many of the same subjects and learning from some of the same lecturers. 

Because their studies occurred so close together, the threads of their university experiences frequently overlapped. Textbooks that had once belonged to Laura found a second life in Mary's studies, while conversations about assignments, exams and legal concepts continued long after classes had finished. "We shared a lot of the material, the textbooks and the subjects," Laura says. "We were able to talk about those throughout both of our studies." 

Despite studying at different stages of life, they often found themselves reflecting on similar issues and challenges and their experiences remained deeply connected. "We both experienced studying differently," Mary says. "But because we studied so close in time at the same university, in the same course and with many of the same lecturers, our relationship has also become one of alumni colleagues." 

Today, both women apply the lessons of their legal education in very different professional environments. 

Mary entered supervised legal practice as a junior lawyer before moving into her current role as a prosecutor in local government. Her work includes preparing briefs of evidence and appearing before the Magistrates' Court and VCAT. "I utilise what I learned at VU, the legal research tools and networking, every day and in everything I do." 

She has also become an advocate for lifelong learning, creating opportunities for colleagues to explore higher education and legal careers through workplace shadowing programs. 

Laura's career took a different turn. After working as a lawyer on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, she joined North Melbourne Football Club during the formative years of the AFLW — a move that would lead to one of the most senior roles in women’s sport in Australia. 

What means the most to me is being able to contribute to creating opportunities for others, particularly women and girls, that simply didn’t exist when I was growing up.

While law and football may appear worlds apart, Laura says the skills she developed at VU remain central to her leadership today. "A law degree teaches you how to solve complex problems," she says. "Often there's heightened emotion, people are trying to right wrongs, and there's pressure." 

Those lessons continue to guide her decision-making in the fast-paced world of professional sport. 

More than a decade after Laura graduated, and years after Mary followed in her footsteps, they remain connected not only as mother and daughter, but as fellow alumni whose lives were shaped by the same university. 

For Laura, VU provided the platform to pursue a career she had dreamed about since high school. For Mary, it opened a door she once believed was closed. Together, their story shows the enduring value of a VU education. 

For our family, it’s a reminder that education isn’t just about a qualification, it’s about possibility. It speaks to the idea that learning has no age limit and that education can shape lives in different ways and at different stages.

As VU celebrates 110 years of educating and empowering generations of students, the Kane family's story is also a reminder that the impact of education extends far beyond graduation. It lives on through careers, communities, families and the generations that follow. “When I think about 110 years of opening doors, I think about the thousands of individual stories and futures that have been shaped because someone was given an opportunity,” Mary says. “Our family is just one of those stories.”