Professor Tina Cockburn

Biography

Tina Cockburn TEP is a Professor in the Faculty of Business and Law at the Queensland University of Technology, Director of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research (ACHLR), co-program leader of the Planning for Healthy Ageing research program within ACHLR, a sessional member of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) and a member of the Queensland Law Society Health and Disability Law Committee. Tina's health law research focuses on access to justice by vulnerable members of society in three broad contexts: a) patient safety law - focusing on medical litigation and compensation for medical negligence, communication of information to patients (including consent and post treatment open disclosure), regulation of health care professionals and the regulation of innovative medical treatment and new technologies. b) elder law - including equitable claims in relation to property; trusts and estate planning including capacity, guardianship and enduring powers of attorney; elder abuse especially elder financial abuse; housing and retirement villages. c) institutional abuse of children – including civil liability and legal redress for child abuse and institutional child abuse. Tina has researched, published and taught undergraduate and postgraduate students in the areas of Equity, Trusts, Torts, Health Law and Elder Law for over 30 years, with over 150 publications. Tina’s work has been published in a range of quality national and international journals, she has presented at a numerous national and international conferences, and she has been awarded competitive grants and contracts to conduct research. Tina is an active member of the national legal profession and is regularly invited to contribute to the continuing legal education programs of legal practitioners and other professionals including doctors and allied health care providers, by presenting conference papers and workshops, and by publishing articles in professional journals. Prior to her appointment in the Faculty of Law, Tina was a solicitor in private practice at Feez Ruthning Lawyers, Brisbane (now Allens Linklaters) in the areas of commercial property, trusts and estates law. Accredited by Staff and Educational Association (UK) - SEDA - in 1998 following completion of the Graduate CertEd (Higher Ed), Tina was the recipient of the 2009 Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2007 Law Faculty Award for Achievement in Research. Research interests

• Health Law and Future Health Care
• Elder Law - Estate Planning, Housing and Elder Financial Abuse
• Equity
• Trusts
• Tort Law - particularly Medical Negligence, Trespass and Intentional Torts and compensation and redress

Research Funding

• National Teaching Development Grant (1992-95) $200,000 Integrated model for teaching torts and undergraduate units (F McGlone, D Gardiner, D Butler, T Cockburn et al CIs)
• The Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) - Priority Projects Program (2009-2011) $215,000 Developing a systematic, cross-disciplinary approach to teaching and assessing reflective writing in higher education (M Ryan, M Ryan, N Bahr, S Carrington, T Cockburn, M Shirley, C Collis, R Nash, I Larkin CIs)
• The Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) (2012-14) $220,000 Assessing the impact of Work Integrated Learning on student work readiness (M Ryan, M Ryan, T Cockburn et al CIs)
• University of Qld Collaboration and Industry Engagement Fund (2013-2016) $43,105 Retirement villages and later life transitions: the impact of financial and contractual obligations (M Petersen, C Tilse and T Cockburn, (CIs)
• QUT Institute for Future Environments (Catapult funding) (2016-2017) $51,002 Steps towards a legal framework for high levels of autonomy in field robotics (B Bennett, A Daly, D Butler, F McDonald, T Cockburn, T Perez, P Corke, K Devitt, A Rakotonirainy, M Milford (CIs).
• Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC, UK) (2015-2017) $59,590 Liability v (Medical) Innovation: Unpacking Key Connections (T Keren-Paz, T Cockburn, A El Haj, M Fay and R Goldberg CIs)
• QUT School of Public Health and Social Work, Faculty of Health QUT Research Funding Support, (2016-2018) $15,000 Improving the Tracking of Accountable Surgical Items: An Implementation Study (S Osborne, T Cockburn, A Barnett, C Steel, H Carter, V Steelman CIs)
• Queensland Aged and Disability Advocacy Inc (2017) $21,007 Examining access to justice for those with an enduring power of attorney (EOPA) who are suffering financial abuse (C Cross, K Purser and T Cockburn CIs)
• Queensland Genomics Health Alliance (2017-2019) $479,636 ELSI- Address the ethical, legal and social policy challenges associated with the delivery of genomics into everyday healthcare (N Waddell, B Bennett, J Devereux, J McGaughran, D Whiteman, Dr Sashika Naidoo, G Pratt, F McDonald, D Butler, T Cockburn, A Daly, A McGee, M Rimmer, M Smith, S Then, J Jacobs, M Brown, K Hussey, D Morrison, X Li, S Bronitt, L Connelly, K Nichols, J Lamont, D Rowell, A Crowden, J Savulescu, A Newson, M Otlowski, D Nicol, E Kowal, and N Stepanov CIs)
• QUT Faculty of Law Grant Seed Funding Scheme (2019-2020) $9,998.56 Understanding and improving family agreements: reducing risk of failure, preventing elder abuse and facilitating access to justice (T Cockburn, P Baker, K Purser, D Cooper, M Petersen, M Hall CIs)
• The Financial Planning Education Council (FPEC) Research Grant Award Scheme, sponsored by NAB (2020-2021) $5,000 ‘The role of financial planners in preventing, recognising and responding to elder financial abuse’ (T Cockburn, K Purser and S Buckby CIs)
• Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Collaborative Grant Seed Funding Scheme (2021) $9,766 Cross Border Transfers of Medical and Health Related Data in Australia: Charting Privacy Requirements T Cockburn, S McPhail, B Richards, R Lehner, J Scheibner
• World Health Organisation in collaboration with the University of Trento, Italy (2022) $32,411COVID-19 litigation (T Cockburn, K Woolaston, M Zaheer-Abbass, S Boyle, B Lewis, B Bennett CIs)