Ray graduated with a Bachelor of Laws with first class honours in 2015 and was admitted to legal practice as a solicitor in 2016. In November 2017, Ray was entered into the register of practitioners at the High Court of Australia. During his undergraduate studies, Ray completed internships at both the Family Court of Australia and the County Court, and completed intensive study programs in alternative dispute resolution, mediation and international arbitration at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.

Once admitted to practice, Ray became a volunteer lawyer at both Fitzroy Legal Service and Moonee Valley Legal Service during 2016 and 2017.

Ray has worked as a lawyer with three government departments, including the Department of Health and Human Services, Victoria Police and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. At the end of October 2021 opened his own law firm, Markus Earl Legal.

Previous to working as a lawyer, Ray worked for over 18 years in the education sector in several roles, including CEO of two private Registered Training Organisations (RTOs), senior manager at a dual sector public education provider, regulatory compliance auditor, trainer/assessor and management consultant.

Ray’s passion is practising in family law, administrative law (with a focus on the vocational education and training sector (RTOs)) and business law.

Ray believes in lifelong education and is currently studying a Master of Laws degree.

In addition, Ray holds the following qualifications: Master of Education, Master of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice, Diploma of Vocational Education and Training, Diploma of Quality Auditing, Certificate IV in Government Investigations and Certificate IV in Real Estate.

Ray is a member of the Law Institute of Victoria, Australian Institute of Administrative Law, Law Council of Australia—Family Law Section and the Institute for Learning Practitioners.