Associate Professor Kelly Purser

Professor, Faculty of Business and Law

PhD (University of New England), Graduate Certificate Academic Practice (Queensland University of Technology), Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) (University of New England)

Dr Purser joined the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2011. She is an active member of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research ('ACHLR'). She co-established and co-leads the Planning for Healthy Ageing Program, nested within ACHLR. Her research explores:

• capacity and its assessment;
• the intersection between legal and health professionals assessing capacity;
• access to justice where there has been an abuse of enduring documents;
• elder law, especially elder financial abuse;
• ageing;
• estate planning;
• succession law and estate planning; and
• trusts and equity.

She has both published and presented nationally as well as internationally. Her research monographs, Capacity Assessment and the Law: Problems and Solutions (2017) and The Human Rights of Older Persons: A Human Rights-Based Approach to Elder Law (2020, co-authored), explore novel issues in relation to capacity assessment best practice and the application of a human rights framework to elder law respectively. Her work has been referenced by bodies such as the Law Reform Committee of the Parliament of Victoria, the Australian Law Reform Commission, and the Law Council of Australia. It has also been cited by tribunals and courts.

Dr Purser has received funding to explore individual experiences of capacity assessments and elder abuse. She was part of a team funded to explore access to justice for (alleged) victims of abuse of enduring powers of attorney and has co-authored a report for the Financial Planning Association of Australia on elder financial abuse. She is part of an international research team funded to explore (in)capacity in the abuse and neglect context (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada, 2022-2025), as well as being part of a team exploring issues around product safety for older Australians funded by the Australian Research Council (2024-2026).

Dr Purser adopts a research-based teaching approach emphasizing 'real world' knowledge in her delivery of the undergraduate succession and equity and trusts units at QUT.

She was admitted as a solicitor in 2004 in Queensland, New South Wales and the High Court of Australia. When in practice she worked in a variety of areas, specialising in estate planning. She retains strong ties to the legal community and is a member of the Succession Law Committee and Elder Law Committee of the Queensland Law Society, as well as the Society for Trust and Estate Practitioners. Dr Purser has been invited to design and deliver workshops on capacity assessment best practice, elder abuse and substitute decision-making for legal and health professionals as well as members of the judiciary.

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