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Dr Angela O’Brien
Dr Angela O’Brien

Dr Angela O’Brien

B. A., LL. B. (Hons), Litt. B., Ph. D., Dip. Ed., Grad Dip Ed Admin, Grad Cert Arb, FTCL, LSDA.

Admission:

25 February 2002

Signed Bar Roll:

03 May 2010

Chambers:

Admitted to Practice:

Victoria

0409 385 746
aob@vicbar.com.au
Areas of Practice:
  • Accredited Mediator
  • Arts Law
  • Children's Court
  • Discrimination
  • Education Law
  • Elder
  • Family Law
  • Human Rights
  • Intervention Orders
  • Testato's Family Maintenance
  • Wills & Estates

General profile

Angela joined the Bar after 24 years as an academic in the creative arts area.

As a barrister she has developed a practice primarily in areas relating to families and the legal challenges and disputes that confront ordinary people in their everyday lives. She is committed to a legal practice which is less adversarial and does no harm.

Angela has a particular interest in ADR. She is a graded arbitrator with the Resolutions Institute and was formerly an elected member of the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators National Council 2004 – 2010 and President in 2008/9.

She has been a mediator since 2002 and a nationally accredited mediator since 2008. She was a member of the National Mediator Accreditation Committee, which implemented the National Accreditation Standards in Australia. She mediates in most areas including employment and industrial relations, the education sector, family relationships, wills and estates, and arts law.

Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards legislation.

Previous occupation

Prior to joining the Bar, Angela was a senior academic at the University of Melbourne where she was most recently Deputy Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and foundation Head of the School of Creative Arts.

Memberships and Associations
  • Victorian Bar ADR Committee
  • Victorian Bar Art and Collections Committee
  • Family Law Bar Association
  • Children’s Court Bar Association
  • Resolution Institute, Association of Family Law Mediators
  • Australian Institute of Family Law Arbitrators and Mediators
  • Family Law Section of the Law Institute
  • Western Edge Youth Arts Board (Chair)
  • Camberwell Community Centre Management Committee.
Academic Position / Published Articles:

As a former academic Angela published regularly and undertook a number of Australia Research Council funded projects.

With specific relation to her current work she was the Chief Investigator in a large four year ARC funded project supported by the Department of Justice, Department of Human Services, VicHealth, Arts Victoria and the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court which investigated the use of the arts as a diversion for young people at risk, including those in juvenile custodian centres. This project won the University of Melbourne inaugural Knowledge Transfer Excellence Award in 2007.

She co-authored on this project, Creative Interventions for Marginalised Youth: the Risky Business Project (2008).

Co-authored a volume of essays, edited by O’Brien and Donelan, The Arts and Youth at Risk: Global and Local Challenges was also published in 2008.

Pro bono practice

Angela was an active member of the duty barrister scheme in the Melbourne Magistrates Intervention list and a member of the Victorian Bar Duty Barrister Committee. She accepts probono briefs in her areas of specialisation.

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