Vale — Dr Elizabeth Brophy

A private cremation will follow.

This funeral will be webcast live should you be unable to attend in person. Please visit tobinbrothers.com.au.

Elizabeth Brophy one of four siblings born into a sheep farming family, spent her early life in Willaura, about 30 kilometres south of Ararat, where she developed a lifelong affinity with nature and the outdoors.

Having previously worked as a social worker and community advocate, Elizabeth was admitted to practice as a solicitor on 3 May 1982 and signed the Bar Roll on 18 November 1999.

Elizabeth was a well organised and calm barrister with an outstanding knowledge of elder law and its associated legislation.  She was the first to know of and share developments in her specialised field.

Elizabeth also maintained a keen interest in alternative dispute resolution and gained expertise in the regulation of health and medical care. She appeared and advised in the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety; the Guardianship List at VCAT; Inquests into aged care, health, and mental health; medical decision making for children and adults; and aged care and health legislation. She served as a Member of the Victorian Bar’s Dispute Resolution Committee and later the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee. She became a Nationally Accredited Mediator in 2008.

In addition to successfully building and maintaining a busy practice in her chosen field, Elizabeth completed her Doctorate of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne Law School in the regulation of health services, health practitioners and complementary medicines, the legal obligations of medical practitioners when incorporating integrative medicine and complementary and alternative medicine into conventional practice.

In her academic pursuits, Elizabeth was awarded the Medico-Legal Society of Victoria Academic Prize in 2002 and the Harold Luntz Thesis Prize in 2008.  She generated numerous publications in her fields of expertise and regularly presented at international, national, and state conferences and seminars in the areas of elder law, mediation and the law related to integrative medicine and complementary medicine.

Elizabeth was held in the high esteem of those that she appeared before, was opposed to, and represented and will be sadly missed by all. She has variously been described by her colleagues as having an encyclopaedic knowledge in her chosen field; a truly great exemplar of the best qualities of a member of our Bar; and a shining example of the benefits of collegiality. Her former clients recount the huge difference that she made to their lives and those of their family members.

Elizabeth was immensely proud of and deeply loved by her family including her two surviving brothers, their partners, her nieces and nephews and their children. Those closest to her will remember her always as stoic, fiercely independent, and amazingly optimistic. Her strength of mind was phenomenal and her outlook on the world enriched all those around her.