About Marlene
Marlene Shiner’s academic path moved among Canada and the United States. She earned a B.A. in sociology from the University of Toronto, completed a J.D. at Osgoode Hall Law School in 1995, and later took bargaining coursework at Harvard Law School in 1995. She finished a S.J.D. in family law at Cornell University in 2005.
Her early legal work took her into federal government service. In 1997 she joined the Child Support Team on the Canadian Federal Department of Justice, dealing with things that intersected family regulation and public coverage. That role brought her to the practical and administrative facets of child support enforcement and household support systems.
In 2007 she established a tradition under the name marlene shiner, esq. family law + facilitated negotiation. She built a caseload that combined traditional family law representation with mediated settlements. Over the years she has worked in a variety of settings. In 2014 she used to be indexed as Family Lawyer for Family Law Software, and in 2018 she served as an affiliate at The Fitch Law Office. Those positions mirror work throughout personal practice and legal offerings that support different household regulation practitioners.
Shiner’s professional training produces a blend of courtroom and alternative dispute decision abilities. She holds facilitated negotiation certification from the Institute of Divorce Mediation and a MCLE mediation credential, along the negotiation education she completed at Harvard. That mix informs how she approaches custody, help and estate matters—often emphasizing settlement possibilities while preserving the choice of legal proceedings when necessary.
She holds memberships in organizations on each facets of the border. She has been a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada since 1997. In Massachusetts she has been active in the Boston Bar Association since 2007 and joined the Massachusetts Bar Association Family Law Section Council in 2018. She is a member of the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, listing memberships for both Ontario and Massachusetts beginning in 2019. She also belongs to the Women’s Bar Association, amongst other professional teams.
Colleagues describe Shiner as methodical and practical in her strategy. She brings academic learn about and authorities knowledge to everyday client issues. Her practice spans procedural work, negotiated resolutions and mediated agreements. She presently practices thru marlene shiner, esq. household regulation + facilitated negotiation, handling family law and facilitated negotiation matters in Massachusetts and Ontario.
