Ken Barlow is a graduate of Monash University and was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1985.
In 1996 he was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of Queensland and became a QC in 2013. Ken was appointed a Sessional Member of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2009, maintaining that role until he was appointed a Judge of the District Court of Queensland on 18 June 2019.
In 2011 he founded and coordinated the Indigenous Students Mentoring Scheme of the Bar Association of Queensland a position held until 2017.