Deb obtained her Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Alberta in 1991. After obtaining experience in civil litigation and family law, she knew she wanted to focus solely on family law. She has extensive experience in complex family law matters including divorce, custody/parenting (including high conflict), common law marriages, child and spousal support (alimony), and property division.

Deb’s focus is on empowering her clients to make the best decision for them and their families as cost- effectively as possible. Her experience and insight direct her focus as she works with clients to identify and execute the best path through her clients’ family legal situation, whether through settlement meetings, mediation, arbitration, parenting coordination or court.

Deb is trained as a mediator, a parenting coordinator, an arbitrator and in collaborative law. However, Deb does not practice “collaborative law” in its strictest sense. Her concern is that if the formal “collaborative law” process breaks down, both parties must retain new lawyers, and start the legal process from the beginning again. To start the process again is extremely expensive and time consuming. Deb’s personal view is that family lawyers should behave and attempt to act collaboratively on every file, using every effort to settle matters; if it can’t settle, the best lawyer to take the matter to court is the lawyer who tried to settle.

Deb has volunteered extensively within the community and the legal community, including: acting as a Legal Aid BC Roster Lawyer, serving as competency evaluator for the Legal Education Society of Alberta; sitting on and chairing the Edmonton Regional Legal Aid Committee; acting as a Child Support Resolution Officer; and teaching “Law for the Layperson” through Continuing Education.

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