In my practice I am governed by the following qualities of the heart:
H onesty
E mpathy
A utheticity
R espect
T rustworthiness
Born into a family of medical doctors in this beautiful European city.
Graduated with Master’s degree in English Philology with French and Latin also having taken two years of philology related to my native tongue.
Taught English in Europe.
Loved my students and drove them home after classes despite martial Law being in effect.
Came to this Canadian province in the 20th century where dinosaurs used to roam free to do my doctorate in comparative literature and semiotics.
As a graduate student freelanced for the French radio station.
Covered Olympic Games figure skating competition in the city whose hockey team was not able to beat my home town team for the Stanley Cup, more than once…
While working on my Ph.D:
- Decided to study law
- Taught modern drama and my native language at the university
- Took eight months of Spanish as some of the plays had not been translated into English
Graduated with my Ph.D. on June 7, 1990 and with my LL.B. on June 10, 1990
Practiced primarily Family Law, Criminal Law and Personal Injury.
After fifteen years of practice I became deeply dissatisfied with the adversarial process which I viewed as ineffective, expensive and unable to solve my clients’ issues as well as failing to respond to the individuality of human experience.
I embarked on new paths in search of humanizing solutions to my clients’ disputes by taking courses and developing interests in the following:
– Therapeutic Jurisprudence
– Mediation
– Collaborative Law
– Elder Mediation
– Mindfulness
– Compassion
– Psychology & Lawyering
– Facial Expression of Emotion
– Listening
– Lawyers as Peacemakers & Teachers
– Improvisation
– Neuroscience of Decision Making
– Meditation
– Contemplative Studies