NO BORDERS, NO BARRIERS
Collaborative Practice for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual/Transgender Clients & Their Families
June 2, 2006
Schedule for Symposium:
8:30 - 9:30 Continental Breakfast
9:00-9:30 Registration and Networking
9:30-10:00 Introduction to Collaborative Practice J. Kim Wright
10:00- 10:30 Keynote Address Shannon Minter
"Bridging the Gap: Challenges, Roadblocks, Attitudes & Political Climate"
10:30 -10:45 Break
10:45-12:00 Collaborative Law for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender clients
Law on separation in the US and Canada as it affects these couples, spouses and families
Status & Next Steps Shannon Minter, Mariette Geldenhuys, Neeraj Goel, Rachel Epstein
12:00-1:00 Lunch Break
1:00-2:30 LGBT Clinical issues Harvey Steinburg, Rachel Epstein, Chris Veldhoven
How are these families different? Same? What should we be sensitive to?
2:30-2:45 Health Break
2:45-3:30 From the Client's Perspective Marion Korn
3:30-4:15 Sensitizing & Upgrading Your Practice Mariette Geldenhuys
Unique collaborative techniques specific to LGBT couples, spouses & families
4:15-5:00 Pulling the Threads Together:
Being Confident about Providing Services to the LGBT Community J. Kim Wright
About the Speakers
Keynote speaker: SHANNON MINTER, Legal Director of The National Center for Lesbian Rights &
Winner 2005 Leadership for Change award from the Ford Foundation
MARION F. KORN, a senior family lawyer in Toronto, restricts her services to Collaborative Practice and mediation. As a founding member and former Chair, Marion is an active member of the Collaborative Practice Toronto. She was a founding member of the Ontario Collaborative Law Federation. Marion is a member of the IACP (International Academy of Collaborative Professionals) Public Education Committee, chair of the IACP Task Force on Diversity and Inclusivity and was a member of an advisory committee of the IACP dealing with training. She is an internationally recognized Collaborative Practice trainer, teaching lawyers in Canada, the US, the UK, Austria and Australia to provide this service.
Mariette Geldenhuys, a partner in the law firm of LoPinto, Schlather, Geldenhuys and Salk, has practiced law in Ithaca, New York for seventeen years. She is Founder and President of the Collaborative Family Lawyers of Central New York. She was plaintiff’s attorney in a same-sex marriage rights case in Tompkins County, New York. She is a contributor to and member of the editorial board of the Same-Sex Partnership Law Report published by American Lawyer Media. She is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, where she led a workshop on "Collaborative Law for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Clients and their Families" at the Atlanta Forum.
J. Kim Wright is managing attorney of Healers of Conflicts Law & Conflict Resolution Center in Asheville, North Carolina and the publisher of The Cutting Edge Law Magazine. Kim founded the Renaissance Lawyer Society and served on the RLS board from 2001-2006. She coaches other attorneys, serves on several boards and committees, and is an active speaker, writer, trainer and advocate for law as a peacemaking profession.
Neeraj Goel graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1998 and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2000. Since being called, he has worked in private practice and in the legal clinic system in the areas of government benefits, disability law, landlord and tenant, consent and capacity, and human rights as they relate to these areas. His clients have primarily been low-income and funded through Ontario's Legal Aid regime. In the past, he has sat on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention in Toronto. He has also been a volunteer interpersonal mediator at St. Stephen's Community House for 7 years and is an active member of their roster. Attracted to the promise of collaborative family law, he entered sole practice in association with the Queen Street Law Centre in 2005. He is enjoying building a peaceful, reflective family law practice and also continues to practice poverty law.
Chris Veldhoven is the Queer Parenting Programmes Coordinator at The 519 Church Street Community Centre. He spent his childhood in Nova Scotia where his father came out when Chris was seven. His dad has been with is same-sex partner for over thirty years. Chris came out to family and friends in high school before he came to Ontario to study Psychology and Drama. Beginning with work in Kingston and at Queen's University, has been educating, organizing and advocating on issues related to LGBTTTIQQ communities for 17 years and, since he moved to Toronto, parenting issues specifically for 3 years. He facilitates the Daddies and Papas 2B course – the first of its kind in North America - co-founded and co-facilitates the Queer Parenting Exchange, and assists with a variety of education and research projects with Rachel Epstein of the LGBT Parenting Network. He is a recent member of the Queer Parenting Initiative, a group that has created the poster, Queering the Family Tree, for national distribution. He also works as a consultant educating Toronto Police Services staff about issues for members of queer communities.
RACHEL EPSTEIN is coordinator of the LGBT Parenting Network of Toronto which provides training for health care, legal, social work and education professionals about how to make services accessible to LGBT parents.
Harvey Steinberg, Dip. Psych., M.Sc. is a Counselor with Catholic Family Services of Toronto and trained family professional member of Collaborative Practice Toronto. He has extensive experience working with parents in process of separation/divorce.