Lawyers:
Elise Schopper-Brigel
Growing and Healing Modern Families
Our Services
At West Coast Family Law, our goal is to help you find efficient and practical solutions. Elise acts for clients using third party assisted production techniques to create their family. Karen acts for adoptive parents. We both help clients to negotiate marriage or co-habitation agreements, or navigate through the process of a separation or family-related dispute. Whatever your circumstances, we will help you find resolutions, tailored to your specific circumstances, and designed to keep you out of court, if possible. Our goal is to help you and those you love, move on, in peace.
Elise’s services: include surrogacy agreements, donor agreements, parental declarations, separation agreements, divorces, asset division, parenting agreements, pre-nuptial or co-habitation agreements and mediation.
Karen’s services: include adoptions, separation agreements, mediation, divorces, asset division, parenting agreements, pre-nuptial or co-habitation agreements, wills, powers of attorney, representation agreements and committeeship applications.
Family Law
Are you recently separated or considering divorce? Are you moving in with your partner and contemplating a co-habitation or marriage agreement? Do you need timely legal advice and help focusing on your most important concerns? Would you benefit from a fair, practical and respectful way to resolve your family disputes? Please contact Elise Schopper-Brigel or Karen Henry.
Mediation
Do you and your spouse, or an agency if you are a parent with a child protection issue, wish to hire a neutral, third party called a family law mediator to facilitate the exchange of information, discuss options and reach agreements? Would you benefit from negotiating in a safe environment and be able to realistically examine options that concern co-parenting, sharing of family assets and debt and child or spousal support, if appropriate. Do you know that most family law cases resolve at mediation with binding agreements that covers all aspects of your family dispute including child protection matters, child and spousal support, parenting arrangements and property division, all the while avoiding the expense and stress of litigation. Please contact Elise Schopper-Brigel or Karen Henry.
Fertility Law
Are you considering becoming an Intended Parent(s)? Or are you looking into being a Surrogate or an Egg Donor? Are you an international Intended Parent(s) seeking a parental declaration? Would you benefit from an experienced team committed to anticipating your legal needs and delivering timely advice in a supportive manner? Please contact Elise Schopper-Brigel.
Collaborative Family Practice
Do you and your spouse wish to participate in a low conflict model of dispute resolution that has a proven 30 year track record? Would you benefit from participating in a negotiation process where you remain in charge of the outcome but leaves the process up to collaborative professionals that include your lawyers and optionally, a child specialist or financial specialist? Collaborative family practice offers the participants the opportunity of re-constructing the family in a healthy, healing fashion that is very child focused. Please contact Elise Schopper-Brigel or Karen Henry.
Adoptions
Are you interested in either domestic, international, or adult and step-parent adoptions and would benefit from very experienced legal advice? Please contact Karen Henry.
Wills, Powers of Attorney and Representation Agreements
Do you need estate and incapacity planning documents drafted by a seasoned lawyer? Contact Karen Henry.
Committeeships
If you have a family member or friend who is incapable of making decisions, and has not made a Power of Attorney and/or Representation Agreement, we can represent you in a proceeding under the Patients Property Act. Contact Karen Henry.
In the video below, Elise explains the collaborative family process:
West Coast Family Law is a proud member of the following organizations
