He received his B.A. (Hons.) in 1974 and his LL.B. (Hons.) in 1983 from the University of the West Indies. In 1985, he received his L.E.C. from the Norman Manley Law School of the University of the West Indies, with Honourable Mention in his final year of study. He was the recipient of the UNITAR Fellowship at the Hague Academy of International Law in the Netherlands and the Commonwealth Fellowship at the University of the West Indies, during which time he completed his LL.M. In 1988, he attended the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London.
He has served on the Advisory Committee of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute of Dalhousie University School of Law in Canada since 2006. Since 2008, he has been the Chairman of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.
Since March 1995, he has been an Associate Fellow of the Society of Advanced Legal Studies of the University of London and since July 2004, a Fellow of the Commonwealth Judicial Educational Institute in Canada.
Chief Justice Rawlins has published a number of articles in Law Journals in the areas of Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Public Law Remedies and International Commercial Contracts.
Chief Justice Rawlins was sworn in as a member of the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission on 28 January 2010, in his capacity as Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission of Dominica.