Edmonton lawyer Melissa Bourgeois had been practising family law for more than a decade when she had what she calls her “light bulb moment.”
After years of helping couples navigate amicable divorces – ones where spouses aren’t actively fighting, but simply choosing to go their separate ways – Ms. Bourgeois heard about a unique legal service being offered in Britain. There, low-conflict separating couples were being offered the opportunity to hire just one lawyer to act for both parties.
The concept at the time was untested in Canada, where conflict-of-interest rules have traditionally dictated that each divorcing spouse must retain their own lawyer, Ms. Bourgeois said.
But she suspected it could work here, too.
“It just seemed to me really brilliant,” she said. “I think what most couples today