The four lawyers of Nathens, Siegel are:

• Ken Nathens
• Brahm Siegel
• Robin Leighton
• Barbara Kristanic

Ken Nathens is the founding and managing partner of Nathens, Siegel. He is now in his twelfth year of practicing exclusively family law. Ken holds both a Civil Law degree and a Common Law degree, both from McGill University.

Ken takes a practical, solution-oriented approach to family law. He understands that the financial and emotional issues that arise from family law matters are unique for each client and advises each client in accordance with his or her own needs and financial budget. He has experience in all areas of family law, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, collaborative family law and court litigation. He enjoys advising client in relation to domestic contracts, such as marriage contracts, cohabitation agreements and separation agreements.

Ken has extensive litigation experience and has been involved in trials relating to such important issues as the mobility rights of parents, imputing income under the Child Support Guidelines, and the rights of adoptive parents under child welfare legislation. Many of the trials in which Ken has been involved have been submitted to legal reporting services. He has also written extensively on family law issues, including numerous published articles in Divorce Magazine. He offers frequent lectures on family law issues for members and staff of the Ontario Federation of Labour.

When not practicing law, Ken enjoys spending time with his family, which includes two young children, and participating in such organizations as the Toronto and York Region Collaborative Law Associations, where he sits as a member of the Board, and the Canadian Bar Association (Ontario).

Brahm completed his undergraduate degree in 1990, receiving a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours from McGill University in Montreal. He graduated from Queen's University Law School in 1993 and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1995.

Both at McGill and Queen's, Brahm received numerous awards and prizes including the Frank Carrell Scholarship, the Osler Hoskin Harcourt Prize in Securities Law and First Class Honours at McGill.

Brahm joined his law partner Ken Nathens three months after his call to the Bar in May 1995. They have been together ever since and employ four junior associate lawyers to form Toronto's third largest divorce law firm.

Currently in his 11th year of practice, Brahm has expertise in all matters of divorce and matrimonial law and enjoys representing clients with challenging cases. He is known for his aggressive, yet practical approach and for resolving difficult cases before they get to trial.

Brahm volunteers his time regularly in the Toronto community by giving free lectures and seminars to various groups. He is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, an instructor of family law at the Bar Admission Course at the Law Society of Upper Canada and regular speaker at the Scarborough Women's Center. In 2002 he started a scholarship for first year law students at Queen's University. Called the Nathens Siegel Award, it is presented to a first year student in the Faculty of Law from Quebec on the basis of academic achievement and financial need.

Brahm also spends what little free time he has writing and speaking about family law. He is:

• the founder and co-author of the Siegel/Waldman Guide to the Family Courts in Ontario which contains every last detail one could want about fifteen different family law courts in and around the Greater Toronto Area;
• co-author of Family Law Rules Annotated, 2005 (4th ed.), along with two judges and a senior family law professor. Published by Thomson/Carswell, it contains a summary of all relevant family law procedure with commentary from each co-author;
• the contributing editor of Consolidated Ontario Family Law Statutes, 2005, published by Thomson/Carswell, which contains all relevant divorce and family law legislation in Ontario;
• only one of four lawyers to be involved in the writing of the Bar Admission Course's new licensing reference materials for Family Law, slated to come into existence in 2006.  He is currently responsible for the chapters on divorce, alternative dispute resolution and procedure; and
• an instructor at the Law Society’s Licensing Program which is responsible for the education and qualification of new lawyers in the province.

Brahm has been trained in collaborative family law and is committed to the practice and use of alternative dispute resolution in family law. In January 2004, he wrote a new chapter for the Bar Admission Course on alternative dispute resolution, mediation, arbitration and collaborative family law. You can get a copy of the paper on this website. Brahm has also written and presented various papers on subjects as diverse as loans and gifts from a family member and the eight best things about family court. These papers can also be found on our website.

Details of Brahm’s career can be found by clicking here.

Robin Leighton completed her undergraduate degree in English and European Studies at the University of Toronto before returning to New Brunswick, from where she originally hails, to obtain her law degree at the University of New Brunswick. She returned to southern Ontario to practice, articling at a litigation firm in the GTA before coming to Toronto to begin her practice of law in earnest.

Robin has practiced family law since her call to the Bar, having planned to practice exclusively in this area since her acceptance to law school. She has appeared in every family court in the Greater Toronto Area, and is very pleased to be working with Nathens Siegel, where she can continue to focus on family issues. Robin has a particular interest in children’s issues, particularly child protection matters, and in same-sex family law issues.

While Robin has appeared frequently and successfully in court, she acknowledges that the best solution is often the one that the parties work out between themselves. To this end she encourages negotiation and resolutions by agreement rather than by court order, where possible.

Robin has assisted in the presentation of Continuing Legal Education seminars on family law and evidentiary issues. She is also conversant in French.

Barbara Kristanic completed her undergraduate Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminology and Sociology at the University of Toronto. She obtained her law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2003, and was called to the Bar in 2004.

Barbara has practiced exclusively family law since her call to the Bar, articling with a sole practitioner in Toronto and then practicing with a boutique family law office prior to her arrival at Nathens, Siegel LLP. Barbara has experience in all aspects of family law including: custody, access, support and property division. Though she prefers to settle matters for her clients on mutually agreed upon terms, Barbara will not hesitate to vigorously represent her clients’ interests in court.

Barbara is a member of the Ontario Bar Association and is on the Board of Directors for the Toronto Family Lawyer’s Association.