Faculty biographies

Wayne Barkauskas is a family law litigator, arbitrator, mediator and parenting coordinator, and a partner of the firm Wise Scheible Barkauskas in Calgary, Alberta. He is a member of the Alberta Family Mediation Society and one of the few lawyers in Alberta that is a qualified Parenting Coordinator. He is the past Chair of the CBA National Family Law Section and the Past-President of the CBA’s Alberta Branch.

Dr. Rachel Birnbaum is a professor of social work at King’s University College at Western in London, Ontario. She teaches in the area of children’s participation, social work ethics and law and on the intersection between law and social work since 2002. She has over 25 years of clinical practice experience working with children and families of separation and divorce, focused on working with high-conflict families. 

JP Boyd is a family law arbitrator, mediator and parenting coordinator practicing throughout Alberta and British Columbia. John-Paul served as the executive director of the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family at the University of Calgary from 2013 to 2018, prior to which he practiced family law in Vancouver as a litigator. He is the founding author of JP Boyd on Family Law, now in its third edition.

Rhoda Dobler is a family law lawyer, mediator and arbitrator with WK Family Lawyers in Calgary, Alberta. Rhoda has taught the bar admission course for articled students, served as an instructor for the University of Calgary Faculty of Law and presented for the Legal Education Society. She is the past Chair of the CBA National Public Legal Education & Professional Development Committee.

Dr. Barbara Fidler is a clinical developmental psychologist, an author and a trainer. She has over 33 years of experience working with children and adults, couples and families, mediation, parenting coordination and mediation-arbitration, and providing testimony as an expert. She served on the AFCC task forces that developed guidelines for parenting coordinators and is past president of AFCC Ontario.

Herschel Fogelman is the principal of Fogelman Law in Toronto, Ontario. He is an experienced litigator with success at all levels of court, including the Ontario Court of Appeal, and is one of Ontario’s most relied-upon family law mediators and arbitrators. He is a frequent author and lecturer for such groups as Osgoode Hall Law School, the Advocates’ Society and the Ontario Bar Association.

Aaron Franks is a partner of Epstein Cole LLP in Toronto, Ontario. He has acted at all levels of court in Ontario, including the Supreme Court of Canada, and is regularly retained as a mediator and arbitrator in private disputes and has been appointed as a Dispute Resolution Officer for the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto. He teaches family law at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Cheryl Goldhart is certified as a Specialist in Family Law by the Law Society of Ontario and has practiced exclusively in the area of family law for more than 30 years. She is the principal of Goldhart & Associates in Toronto, Ontario. She specializes in negotiating complex agreements encompassing all areas of family law and litigates in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Court of Justice, and the Court of Appeal.

Arlene Henry is a lawyer, mediator, child interviewer, parenting coordinator, med-arbitrator, arbitrator, adjudicator, instructor and dispute resolution coach based in Vancouver, British Columbia and working throughout the province. Arlene is known across Canada for her work teaching and training lawyers in out-of-court dispute resolution processes.

Alyson Jones is the Clinical Director and visionary at Alyson Jones & Associates. She leads one of the largest counselling centers in the province of British Columbia and approaches her work with passion and commitment. Her work as clinical director, counsellor, public speaker, parent educator, teacher and author enables her to touch the lives of many.

Alf Mamo is a family law lawyer, mediator and arbitrator with McKenzie Lake Lawyers in London, Ontario. Alf is well-known for his work teaching and writing about family law issues, in particular as the author of Creswell’s Annual Review of Family Law. Alf was the senior instructor of the family law section of the Ontario Bar Admission Course and has served on Ontario’s Family Law Rules Committee.

Danny Melamed is a family law arbitrator and mediator, and a partner in the Family Law Group of Torkin Manes LLP in Toronto, Ontario. He is Preferred Counsel to The Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company, the insurance provider for lawyers in the Province of Ontario, for which he defends family lawyers law when negligence is claimed. He is also a member of the Family Rules Committee for the Province of Ontario.

Doug Moe is a family law arbitrator, mediator and litigator, and is a founding partner of Moe Hannah LLP in Calgary, Alberta. He has a long history of volunteer involvement for the profession including being a Past Chair of the Family Section for the Canadian Bar Association in Calgary, Past Chair of the CBA National Family Law Section and Past Member of the Alberta Law Society’s Family Law Advisory Committee.

Krysta Ostwald is a partner and co-founder of WK Family Lawyers LLP in Calgary, Alberta. Krysta emphasizes resolving disputes without unnecessary conflict. She uses collaborative negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation to resolve family law disputes and has been on the organizing committee for the National Family Law Program since 2009.

Lawrence Pinsky is a family law lawyer in the Family Law Group of Taylor McCaffrey LLP in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is a former chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s national family law section. Lawrence practices as a litigator, a mediator and an arbitrator, and serves as a Human Rights Adjudicator for the Province of Manitoba.

Eugene Raponi is a founding partner of Waddell Raponi LLP in Victoria, British Columbia. Eugene practices primarily in the area of family law. He has a significant practice as a mediator and arbitrator, predominantly in the area of family law and estates. Eugene teaches at the University of Victoria and serves as a governor of the British Columbia Law Foundation.

Rick Shields is a former lawyer, mediator, arbitrator and trainer who retired from private in 2020. Rick is a past president of the ADR Institute of Ontario and the Ontario Association for Family Mediation, and a past officer and director of the Family Dispute Resolution Institute of Ontario. Rick was an adjunct professor in the Certificate in Dispute Resolution and Certificate in Family Mediation programs at York University.

Brahm Siegel is a family law arbitrator and mediator, and senior partner at Nathens, Siegel LLP in Toronto, Ontario. he is certified as a Specialist in Family Law by the Law Society since 2008. He co-authored McLeod’s Ontario Family Law Rules Annotated for ten years and is the consulting editor of the Consolidated Ontario Family Law Statutes and Regulations, published by Thomson Carswell. 

The Honourable Murray Sinclair is general counsel to Cochrane Saxberg LLP. He was the first Aboriginal judge appointed in Manitoba and served as a chair of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry in Manitoba. He was the chief commissioner of the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2009 to 2015 and was appointed to the Senate in 2016.

Lorne Wolfson is a family law arbitrator and mediator, and a senior partner in the Family Law Group of Torkin Manes LLP in Toronto, Ontario. Lorne is accredited as a family mediator by the Ontario Association for Family Mediation. He is also a Dispute Resolution Officer of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and sits on Ontario’s Family Law Rules Committee

Dr. Lorri Yasenik is the co-director and co-owner of Rocky Mountain Play Therapy Institute, an international training institute for the study and treatment of children. She is the past co-owner of Rocky Mountain Psychological Services where she was clinical director for more than ten years. Lorri has dedicated her professional life to working with children, families and individuals.