Rena (she/her) practices exclusively in family law. She is a certified collaborative family lawyer and a mediator accredited by the Law Society of British Columbia. She has assisted clients in Provincial Court, Supreme Court, and the Court of Appeal dealing with parenting issues, child support, spousal support, property division, and jurisdiction disputes.
Rena’s goal is to support her clients, who are spouses, parents, grandparents, and families through the trauma of separation and resolve matters through negotiation, mediation, and collaborative family law.
Languages: English and Mandarin-Chinese
Education
2010: Bachelor of Music (B.Mus), University of British Columbia
2014: Juris Doctor (J.D.), University of Alberta
2015: Admitted to the British Columbia Bar
I realized that my training as a lawyer only really prepared me in representing clients in our court system. I needed more tools to assist families outside of it.
In 2018, I made the decision to invest my time in becoming a certified collaborative family lawyer and then a mediator. The invaluable training I received not only gave me more tools, but also a completely different perspective. It helped expand my impact and role as a mediator and family lawyer in general, regardless of whether we were moving through the court process, collaborative family law process, or other out-of-court settlement processes.
I learned to communicate differently, with a focus on decreasing conflict and resolving problems. I learned to be creative and find ways to work together with the other party’s lawyer. I learned to move away from the traditional lawyer-centered practice and work with other professionals, like divorce or parenting coaches and financial specialists so that we have the best suited expertise for well-rounded solutions. All this ultimately results in cost savings and a better outcome for the client and their families.
This shift in how I practice means that clients settle sooner, incur fewer fees, and experience less damage. This shift has also oriented the actual work to align with why I was drawn to family law in the first place and for that, I am grateful.
Outside of work, I enjoy long forest walks with my two kids, husband, and miniature schnauzer as well as good meals with family and friends.
A note from Rena:
I became a lawyer because I wanted to practice family law. For me, it has been a journey of continuous personal growth and learning about family, love, life, and belonging.
In 2012, while still in law school, I started working part-time at a family law firm. After graduation, I had the privilege of articling at the same firm and immediately began the very steep learning curve of litigation and advocacy.
I have assisted clients in relocation applications, complex parenting disputes, imputation of income for the purposes of calculating child and spousal support, and the division of property and debts involving corporations and multi-million-dollar assets spanning across two continents. I have represented spouses and grandparents. I was also blessed with the opportunity to become very acquainted with jurisdictional issues as counsel in Jiang v Shi¸ 2017 BCCA 276 and Liu v Xu, 2020 BCSC 92.
However, the part of me that has always wanted to help families transition out of their marriages with as much grace and compassion as possible, recognized that our court system should only be relied upon as a last resort. Yet, too many families find the courts as their first point of contact and its consequences, regardless of whether a favourable decision was obtained in court, can be detrimental.