Victoria Smith
Family Lawyer, Collaborative Practitioner, Accredited Family Mediator, Trainer
Victoria is a Toronto-based family lawyer and mediator with over 35 years of experience. Her passion and life’s work is to help clients resolve their separation and divorce wisely and with dignity, and to support an evolution in the legal profession from an adversarial approach to intelligent, humane conflict resolution.
Victoria focuses solely on out-of-court settlement cases using collaborative law and mediation. She’s empathic and solution-oriented, and negotiates creative settlements that meet her clients’ needs. She has extensive experience with complex property and high income support cases, and brings in accountants, financial planners, valuators, social workers, and child specialists when helpful. Her goal is to achieve the best possible outcome with the least possible emotional and financial turmoil.
In addition to training lawyers and other professionals in the collaborative process, Victoria regularly speaks at international conferences and in the media. She’s the co-author of Collaborative Family Law: Another Way to Resolve Family Disputes, and numerous articles on collaborative practice. She was an Adjunct Professor of Collaborative Lawyering at Osgoode Hall Law School, as well as a former member of the Board of Collaborative Practice Toronto and the Board of Directors of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. She’s an accredited family mediator with the Ontario Association for Family Mediation.
Victoria is an expert at navigating divorce successfully, managing strong emotions, and making important long-term financial and legal decisions.
Victoria is a mom of two, and most recently, a proud nanny of three beloved grandchildren. She loves time at the cottage, traveling with her husband, hiking and cycling and is an enthusiastic convert to pickleball.