Dr Lucinda O'Brien

Overview

Lucinda is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Corporate Law. She holds Honours degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Melbourne and was awarded her PhD in 2019.

Lucinda joined the Centre as a Research Fellow in 2014, working with Professor Ian Ramsay and Associate Professor Paul Ali on a major empirical study of Australia’s personal insolvency laws .  This study considered the extent to which bankruptcy and debt agreements offer effective relief to people experiencing severe financial hardship.   Lucinda currently works alongside Professors Ramsay and Ali on the Centre’s Harmful Financial Products Project.  This wide-ranging empirical study examines a number of non-mainstream financial products, such as payday loans, pawn loans, buy-now-pay-later services and funeral insurance.  It explores the potential for these products to cause harm to vulnerable consumers.

Prior to joining the Centre for Corporate Law, Lucinda worked in the community legal sector, where she specialised in civil law policy and access to justice issues.  She has practised as a solicitor and served as a judge’s associate in the Supreme Court of Victoria.  Lucinda has also taught and lectured in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne.