Marie G. Michaels Professional Corporation

Marie G. Michaels has served the Durham Region for more than 15 years, and the legal community in excess of 20 years. She has been vigilant in maintaining her skills by participating in annual training even before it became mandatory for all lawyers in 2011. In 2012 Marie completed her training as a Collaborative Lawyer which added a new dimension to her practice by allowing her to utilize many of the collaborative law skills during regular negotiations.

Marie has gained experience in some unique family law situations including, but not limited to, domestic kidnapping, international kidnapping, civil awards for spousal battery within divorce cases, income imputation (where the Court holds a support payor is intentionally under-employed or intentionally unemployed to evade support responsibilities); constructive trust and unjust enrichment cases (for long-term common law relationship breakdowns). While she found this challenging, and obtaining just results satisfying, the experience that she gained has benefitted her clients and the junior lawyers she has trained or is training.

Mesha Donaldson Mesha Donaldson is our junior lawyer and went to law school at the University of Windsor. At Windsor she was the coordinator for Pro Bono Student Canada and she also volunteered for Community Legal Aid and Windsor Legal Aid. Mesha had a well-rounded experience during her articling apprenticeship, including Small Claims Court matters and civil litigation including wrongful dismissal and tax litigation.

Mesha has chosen a career in family law because she genuinely enjoys helping people solve their problems. She recognizes that separation and divorce are highly emotional times for adults and their children and she wishes to provide legal services in a compassionate and understanding manner while fighting for the rights and entitlements of her clients.

Nicole Our law clerk frequently meets with clients to prepare or assist in preparing simple legal documents. The clerk stays current with most going's on in client files so as to be able to respond to client inquiries regarding the progress of their files while saving the client the cost of addressing such inquiries to the more expensive lawyers. Another duty is helping clients gather documents and prepare financial statements, which many clients find overwhelming

Sebastian Duff is our articling student. He attended law school in the United Kingdom at Cardiff University on the heels of an international and exciting upbringing. At law school Sebastian participated in moot court where he honed his advocacy skills.

He chose a career in family law because he is results oriented and compassionate to the needs people may have when seeking family law advice. He has quickly settled into the Durham Region, exploring the community and what it has to offer, and looks forward to many years serving the community as a future family law lawyer with this organization.

Sharon is our front line team member, and the one you are most likely to have your first contact with either by phone, e-mail or in person. She has been a part of the team for over 12 years and is part of the great and well- trained support staff here to assist us and help reduce client legal expense.