Kristin Schamel

Attorney

Kristin Schamel, a proud Chicago native and wife to a retired U.S. Marine, has been a practicing attorney since 1998. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois, where she earned her Bachelors degree, and went on to attend Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, where she undertook a rigorous 2-year, year-round course of study to earn her law degree in Southwestern’s innovative SCALE program. Ms. Schamel lived in San Diego and practiced in the areas of employment, civil rights, and class action law until her husband’s military retirement. She then relocated to the picturesque Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, and spent over a decade teaching business law and paralegal studies at SUNY Corning, while also working in an Estate Planning law firm as she raised her family.

In 2018, Ms. Schamel attended Harvard University Law School’s Negotiation Institute and gained international certification as a Mediator. She also completed nearly 100 hours of additional training at the New York Peace Institute to obtain state certification as a Divorce Mediator, Special Education Mediator, and Conflict Coach. She expanded her practice to include services as a private divorce mediator, and has mediated numerous business, employment, estate, and special education disputes since that time. In addition, she volunteers her time as a community and parent planning mediator for her local Community Dispute Resolution Center as an affiliate member of the New York State Dispute Resolution Association, as well as volunteering as a Parent Advocate for families with special needs children to secure appropriate special education services.

An avid traveler, Ms. Schamel has visited all 50 states, Central and South America, most of Europe, parts of Asia, with Australia and Antarctica remaining on her bucket-list itinerary. She has hiked the Camino de Santiago across France and Portugal to Spain, with plans to complete a third Camino in 2026. When she can be tracked down, she will likely be found enjoying time with her family, including an unspecified number of disreputable rescue cats and a pair of Irish Wolfhounds, with her beloved Chicago Cubs or Bears playing in the background.

Ms. Schamel has returned to San Diego to enjoy the milder winters, and brings years of experience both as a lawyer and mediator to Men’s Legal Center> Her aim is to help clients and their families meet the challenges of divorce with fortitude, and to ease through the transition to post marital life with grace, compassion, and a healthy sense of humor.