Paula O'Brien is a Professor at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. She is Director of the Health Law and Ethics Network, the COVID-19 Research Network, and the Health and Medical Law Masters, as well as Co-Director of Studies, Health and Medical Law. O'Brien specialises in public health law in her research and teaching. Her research focuses on the regulation of corporate conduct to protect human health, international economic law and human health, and the regulation of health care systems. For several years, a particular emphasis has been on controlling alcohol-related harms through labelling, marketing, pricing, licensing, and international trade regulation. Her PhD thesis critiqued industry self-regulation of alcohol marketing and labelling. She employs interdisciplinary methods and collaborates with scholars outside law. Paula’s work is influential in the reform of law and policy, and is widely cited by scholars in public health, medicine, and addiction science.

Prior to her academic career, O'Brien graduated from the University of Melbourne with a BA/LLB (first class honours in law and arts) in 1998. She practiced law at Minter Ellison Melbourne until 2003, principally in administrative law, advising public sector agencies on the regulation of health professionals. From 2003 to 2007, she served as Executive Director of the Public Interest Law Clearing House (PILCH) in Victoria, engaging in case work, advocacy, and education to advance the public interest for marginalised and disadvantaged community members; for this work, she was awarded the Women Lawyers 'Rising Star' Award in 2007. O'Brien received a full Commonwealth Scholarship for her LLM (class I, specialising in international law) at the University of Cambridge in 2008 and completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne. Notable publications include "Health worker shortages and global justice" (O'Brien and Gostin, 2011), "Cancer warning labels on alcohol containers: A consumer’s right to know, a government’s responsibility to inform, and an industry’s power to thwart" (Stockwell et al., 2020), "Australia's double standard on Thailand's alcohol warning labels" (O'Brien, 2013), and "Industry influence over global alcohol policies via the World Trade Organization: a qualitative analysis of discussions on alcohol health warning labelling, 2010–19" (Barlow et al., 2022). She teaches in the Melbourne JD program, including laws50058 Melbourne University Law Review.

Professional Email: obrienpl@unimelb.edu.au