Profile:

Prior to joining the Bar, Angela was a senior academic at the University of Melbourne where she was an Associate Professor, Deputy Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and foundation Head of the School of Creative Arts. Prior to that, Dean of the School of Studies in Creative Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts and Deputy Head of the School of Visual and Performing Arts Education in the Melbourne Institute of Education. She also taught and worked as a dispute resolver in the TAFE and secondary education sectors. She is currently a senior Associate of the University of Melbourne.

Angela has expertise in areas of law associated with the education sector, including workplace disputes, student disputes, education/research contracts, intellectual property and administrative review. As a former cultural historian and arts educator, she also has a broad interest in and understanding of arts law issues and disputes.

She has undertaken research involving the use of creative activity in diversionary programs with youthful offenders and youth at risk. She was the Chief Investigator in a large four year Australia Research Council (Linkage) funded project supported by the Department of Justice, Department of Human Services, VicHealth, Arts Victoria and the Melbourne Magistrates' Court. 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). 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.

Angela has a particular interest in ADR. She is a graded arbitrator with the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia (IAMA) and has been an elected member of the IAMA National Council 2004 - 2010. She was IAMA President 2008/9. She has been an accredited mediator since 2008 and was a member of the National Mediator Accreditation Committee, which implemented the National Accreditation Standards in Australia. She is currently a member of the Victorian Chapter Committee of IAMA. She has coached on the IAMA Mediation training courses.

Since joining the Bar she has worked across a range of areas including: administrative law, commercial law, criminal law, family/family violence, traffic and transport infringements, wills and probate.