After being a family lawyer for over 13 years, coupled with my own personal experience with divorce, I have come to understand the difficult transition that comes with the end of a relationship. This experience has put me in the unique position of being able to provide clients with a clear picture of what is to come and how to plan for it. As well as provide clients with guidance and education on how to deal with the day-to-day realities of a separation. After routinely going to court in my first decade as a lawyer, I came to see how destructive that process can be for families, both financially and emotionally. That is the reason my practice is focused on reaching out-of-court settlements, either through collaborative divorce or mediation/negotiation. These processes reduce legal fees, stress and anxiety and allows parents to maintain a workable relationship going forward. From personal and professional experience, I realized that family law clients often need more than just legal support. It was this understanding that inspired me, together with business partner Simon Kent, to build a law firm where clients can access a community of support and feel empowered to move through the transition of separation/divorce to a better place. This is also why we offer each Connect client a complementary 1.5 hour counselling/coaching session with mental health professionals that specialize in separation and divorce. While I advise clients on all areas of family law (including child support, spousal support and parenting), I specialize in creating workable and creative solutions for the division of businesses and trusts (including the tax implications of those divisions). This expertise carries over to my practice as a certified family law mediator. I also prepare marriage and cohabitation agreements dealing with business and property interests, family trusts and anticipated inheritances. As a result of seeing first-hand the difficulties faced by couples in a separation, I prepare marriage and cohabitation agreements with an eye to eliminating or decreasing acrimony should a separation occur in the future. Given I am now at an age where life is full of stressors, I have taken up meditation (and try to do it daily) as well as recently adopted a dog, which I have read is supposed to bring calm and love. The jury is out on whether either endeavor is working, but all we can do is try.