Profile
Laurie is a partner in our Family Law Group, acting in disputes involving high incomes, significant property, and custody and access issues. Laurie is results-oriented, using her practical and creative skills to find the most appropriate resolution for each client’s specific needs. Laurie appears in courts at both the trial and appellate levels, and makes effective use of both mediation and arbitration for her clients.
Laurie is a frequent contributor to the National Post and writes a regular column on current family law issues. Links to her columns in the National Post can be found here.
In addition to her column in the National Post, Laurie has been widely quoted in the Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, the Toronto Sun, Canadian Living Magazine, Law Times, The Lawyers Weekly, Canadian Lawyer and Precedent Magazine. She also speaks regularly on a wide variety of law-related and professional issues in far-flung places, such as Australia, Ireland, Scotland, India, and throughout Canada.
Between 2010 and 2012, Laurie was elected as the 63rd Treasurer (President) of the Law Society of Ontario, the regulator governing all lawyers and paralegals in Ontario. She was only the third woman since the founding of the Law Society in 1797 to hold this office. Throughout her time as an elected bencher (director) of the Law Society of Ontario (2003-2012), Laurie was engaged in specific projects affecting legal education in Canada, and in advancing women lawyers within the profession. For much of this time, Laurie co-chaired the Justicia Project, aimed at advancing women lawyers within the profession, a project that has now been adopted by a number of other provincial law societies.
In addition to being frequently listed in Best Lawyers and The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory in the area of Family Law, Laurie was named in the “Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada” in 2012, and received an Honourary Doctorate from the Law Society of Ontario in the same year.
Most recently, Laurie co-founded The Minerva Group, an association of senior family law lawyers in Toronto who provide timely access to family law mediation, arbitration and litigation management services. Laurie brings an empathetic and innovative approach to conducting mediations, using foundational best practices for both mediation and arbitration, as developed by The Minerva Group. To book a mediation, arbitration or litigation management with Laurie, or to inquire further about her mediation or arbitration agreements, her rates and availability, please reach out to Michelle Fields.