Kristin Schamel

Kristin Schamel brings nearly three decades of civil litigation and alternative dispute resolution experience to FLSD.  Born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, she is a graduate of the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana). After marrying a U.S. Marine, she moved to California, where she attended Southwestern University School of Law a SCALE program, a highly competitive two-year curriculum, graduating and passing the bar in 1997, all while raising her young family.  Kristin spent her early career as a civil litigator focusing on employment, civil rights, and class action matters, which by nature honed her skills as negotiator and deal-maker in mediated labor and employment cases.  Following her husband’s retirement from military service she and her family returned to his native home in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York.  Once there, Kristin became a part-time professor in the SUNY system while pursuing her bucket-list interest in developing her own ADR practice and becoming a certified mediator.  She attended Harvard Law School’s renowned Negotiation Institute and became an internationally accredited Mediator in 2018, followed by additional coursework and certification at the New York Peace institute, where she became a certified New York State Court System Mediator, with credentials in Community Dispute Resolution, Divorce Mediation, and Special Education Mediation, and Conflict coaching.  She also serves as a volunteer Arbitrator in Lemon Law and Fee Dispute matters for New York State. 

Kristin returned to San Diego in 2024 to enjoy “pre-retirement” (and nicer weather) as an attorney and divorce mediator.  She handles litigated Family Law cases, provides private mediation services for parties who want to handle divorce without resorting to litigation, serves as Minor’s Counsel (representing children as their Court-appointed attorney in high-conflict cases between parents), and has recently completed training in Collaborative Divorce.  With her expansive knowledge, training, experience, and skill as a negotiator and solution-finder in high-conflict matters, Kristin provides clients with a wealth of wisdom, passionate advocacy, and a commonsense approach to resolving family law matters with dignity, clarity, and peace.  In her spare time, you’ll find Kristin enjoying time with her family, an unspecified number of disreputable shelter cats, and a pair of snoring Irish wolfhounds, with her beloved Chicago Cubs or Bears playing in the background, depending on the season.