A prominent Calgary lawyer with St. Albert roots raised the bar on Thursday as she accepted her Women in Law award for leadership in the community.
Sandy Vander Ziel was humble that she even had her name put forward for the award.
“Honestly, I was so honoured to be nominated. I’ve gone to the Women in Law Leadership Awards … and I’ve just been so inspired by these women who seem to do it all and have it all,” she joked.
“When they told me that they were nominating me, I was just shocked. I still look at myself as a young lawyer, even though I know I’m a senior associate. I’ve never done this for recognition. It’s never been about that, but it’s really nice to know that you’re being honoured by your peers.”
She was first called to the bar in 2001 and practiced with local and national law firms before focusing exclusively on family law with Dunphy Best Blocksom since 2013. She is a registered collaborative lawyer, mediator and arbitrator, as well as a dispute resolution officer with the Court of Queen’s Bench.
She is described as having a strong collaborative practice and is well known for her extensive experience in dealing with situations involving domestic violence and has been trained in spousal abuse risk assessment.
Vander Ziel has appeared at both the Court of Queen’s Bench and Provincial Family Court as a child and youth advocate. She has represented children through the Legal Representation for Children and Youth Advocacy Program as well.
“Family law is obviously a very difficult area of law but I try and do everything I can to protect the children when they are involved. I have a real passion for it. There’s a way that people can dissolve their relationships without significant conflict but the children are like collateral damage.”
She is the past chair of both the Association of Collaborative Professionals and the Calgary Youth Justice Society Board of Directors. It was during her time with that society that the Sandy Vander Ziel Heart of Change Award was established to recognize people who had been negatively affected by crime but made positive changes because of it.
On top of all of that, she volunteers with the Legal Education Society of Alberta as an instructor and evaluator for the Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education program. She is also an executive member of the Canadian Bar Association Family Law Section and is the current president of the board of directors for Sonshine Community Services, a second-stage transitional shelter for women and children fleeing domestic violence. It recently opened the first children’s centre in North America to provide children with therapeutic intervention to break the cycle of domestic violence.
Becoming a lawyer was her childhood dream, even from when she was five years old. You could even ask her neighbours, she said.
“They all joke about it. It never wavered. I saw it as a way to make a difference, even at a young age. I just wanted to help people. In family law, you take the approach that this isn’t just a file. These are people who are going through the most difficult time of their lives. You have to have compassion for what they’re going through and empathy. I really do enjoy what I do.”
