Janet McDonald was a once only candidate (ALP, New South Wales Legislative Assembly, North Shore, 1999) whose career in the law has continued successfully. She was President of the Australasian Law Students Association and has worked as a solicitor, waitress, cashier and company director. Janet was admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW on 20 December 1989. She later tutored in Law at the University of Sydney for a short time.

At the time of her campaign, Janet McDonald was in partnership with her husband in Driscoll & Matters, a Legal Costs Consulting company. In 2000, having built up the business to a client base of over 160 firms, they sold out and went into the coffee cart business, selling coffee on the pavements of the city. They found they preferred the law and have re-established themselves as Driscoll Matters + Macdonald Pty Limited, Legal costs lawyers.

Janet is a keen sportswoman and a Sydney Swans Football Club supporter.

Sources used to compile this entry: Putting Skirts on the Sacred Benches: Women Candidates for the New South Wales Parliament, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2006, http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/pssb/home.html; Labor Times, No 7, March 1999; Ephemera on NSW State and local elections, Box 9, Mitchell Library collection, State Library of NSW, Sydney; Law Society Journal , October 2003, p.22.