Good day and thank you for visiting my website. My name is Rick Shields and I am a lawyer, mediator, arbitrator, and trainer. I was admitted to the practice of law in the province of Ontario, Canada in 1976. Family law emerged as my preferred area of practice and I am a Certified Specialist in Family Law. 

In 1993, I embarked upon a program of continuing education with my enrollment in the Certificate in Dispute Resolution program at Pepperdine University. Subsequently I obtained a Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution from Antioch University and a Master of Laws in ADR from York University. I developed my mediation and arbitration practice with a focus on family dispute resolution. I am a Certified Comprehensive Family Mediator and a Chartered Mediator and Chartered Arbitrator.

I learned of collaborative law, and I took the required training. I found this model of practice to be compatible with my approach to family dispute resolution in mediation. My professional practice is now restricted to collaborative family law, family mediation, and  family arbitration.                                                                                                                       Richard W. Shields, LL.B.,M.A.,LL.M.,Ph.D.