Kelly Phelps, an alumna of the University of Cape Town, is currently an independent criminal justice consultant working with legal teams and research organisations. She is also the CEO of a civil society think tank. Between 2007 and 2023 she was a senior lecturer in public law at the University of Cape Town.

She has provided professional opinions to senior advocates and prosecutors on a range of substantive criminal law matters, as well as on constitutional criminal adjudication, parole laws and sentencing. Phelps was a consultant member of the Pistorius defence team 2015–2016 (sentencing and appeal cases), and a Special Advisory Commissioner for the South African Law Reform Commission, Project 25. She has also made submissions to Parliament and the Department of Education on sexual offences and child justice laws.

In 2014 and 2015, Phelps was a legal analyst for CNN for the Pistorius and Dewani murder trials. She has consulted extensively with local and global media houses throughout her career and appears in numerous globally aired documentaries and podcasts, all focusing on criminal justice in South Africa.