Professor Pam O'Connor

Adjunct Professor, Sir Zelman Cowen Centre
  • is notAvailable for media queries
  • is notAvailable to supervise research students at VU
Adjunct Professor, Sir Zelman Cowen Centre
  • is notAvailable for media queries
  • is notAvailable to supervise research students at VU

Areas of expertise

  • Legal education
  • Tribunal practice
  • Administrative law
  • Real Property Law

Contact details

Email

About

Professor Pam O'Connor is an Adjunct Professor with the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre.

Prior to joining Victoria University, Professor O’Connor was a Professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) (2014-18), was Head of the School of Law and Criminology, and held a concurrent appointment as Adjunct Professor at Monash University. Previously, Professor O’Connor was employed at Monash University’s Faculty of Law for 23 years, most recently as Associate Professor and Association Dean (Education). At Monash and USC she was co-Chief Investigator in four research projects funded by the Australian Research Council.

Professor O’Connor is a past board member of the Judicial College of Victoria (a statutory board which provides education and training to judicial and tribunal officers) and the Leo Cussen Institute (a statutory corporation providing practical legal training and continuing legal education for law graduates). She has also been a Commissioner with the Victorian Law Reform Commission (2010-2012), a member of the Research Projects Committee of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration, and a member of the Social Security Appeals Tribunal.

While at Monash University, Professor O’Connor developed and delivered a graduate diploma program for tribunal members. She has undertaken funded research and education projects and research consultancies for the Australasian Council of Tribunals.

Portfolios

Qualification

PhD (Monash, 2004), LLM (Melbourne, 1996), MBA (Monash 1990), BA, LLB (Monash 1977), Admitted to legal practice (Victoria, 1978)

Institute

Sir Zelman Cowen Centre

Publications

Research Grants

Institutional grants for teaching and learning innovations

2022: Advanced Decision Writing for the content development for Council of Australasian Tribunals' online training course

$22,436 (2009): Monash Strategic Innovations Fund grant for development of an online distance education course in Tribunal Procedures (P O’Connor, Assoc Prof E Gaze, Dr P Jamieson)

Nationally Competitive Research Grants

$367,000 (2013-16): Co-Chief Investigator, ARC Discovery Grant DP1300100607 2012 for 4 year cross-institutional project ‘A Legal Framework for Specifying and Defining Carbon Property Rights’, (with Profs S. Christensen and W. Duncan of QUT)

Research Consultancies

2022 Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Inc and the Council of Australasian Tribunals grant for 'Complaint Handling by Tribunals', (P O’Connor sole researcher, $28,000)

  • Better Complaint Handling System for Tribunals (2023), Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Inc, ISBN: 978-1-875527-63-2, available in hard copy/online from Australian Institute of Judicial Administration and Council of Australasian Tribunals, Pages 50.
  • AIJA and COAT project on complaint handling in Australasian tribunals (2023), Australian Institute of Judicial Administration, ISBN: 978-1-875527-62-5, Pages 28.

2014 Council of Australasian Tribunals, for project ‘Promoting Tribunal Independence in Member Appointment Processes’ (USC, P O’Connor sole researcher, $16,277)

2012 Council of Australasian Tribunals, for project ‘Current legislation and practices in Australia and New Zealand which affect Tribunal Independence’ (P O’Connor sole researcher, $20,000)

2005 Nationally competitive grant from the Council of Australasian Tribunals, to research and write the Council’s Practice Manual for Tribunals (with Profs B McSherry, P Sallman and I Freckelton, $49,500)

Conference presentations

O’Connor, P.A., ‘Does the Torrens System Guarantee Boundaries as well as Titles?’, International Property Registries Association – CINDER congress in Santiago Chile, 5 Nov 2014.

O’Connor, P.A., ‘Tribunal independence and appointment processes’, Council of Australasian Tribunals and Australian Institute of Judicial Administration National Conference, Effective Communication for Tribunals, Brisbane, 6-7 June 2013.

O’Connor, P.A., Invited submission - Parliament of Australia, CommitteeHansard, Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee, Inquiry into the Foreign Investment Review Board National Interest Test, 10 Aug 2012, 21-26.

O’Connor, P.A., ‘Professional Development for Tribunal Members’, Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Tribunals Conference, 11 May 2008.

O’Connor, P.A., ‘Measuring the Quality of Administrative Justice’, Council of Australasian Tribunals NSW Chapter Inc 4th Annual Conference, Sydney, 11 May 2007.

Supervision

Past co-supervision of 4 PhD students, 4 Masters students, 10 Honours students