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Natai Shelsen

Natai Shelsen

Partner

Biography

Natai Shelsen is a bilingual litigator and mediator who is committed to helping her clients find the most appropriate and cost effective way to resolve their disputes through negotiation, mediation, or litigation. Natai will analyze a conflict and suggest a dispute resolution process designed to meet clients’ interests while saving time and money.

Natai has a diverse and complex litigation practice. She represents clients on a variety of business-related disputes, employment matters, human rights issues, contract disputes, real estate disputes, and everything in between. Natai is a skilled negotiator and an ardent defender of her clients’ rights and interests. She keeps common sense and practicality front of mind throughout negotiations and at each step of litigation, to ensure that every move she makes advances her clients’ interests. Natai is fully bilingual and licensed to practice law in Ontario and Quebec. She has represented clients at all levels of court in Ontario, Quebec and the Federal Courts, as well as at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Natai is a member of the firm’s Aboriginal Law Group. She understands the complex legal issues facing Indigenous clients and represents individuals and communities in consultations, negotiations and litigation. Natai’s Aboriginal Law practice has included litigating a massive $200-million lawsuit involving a mining company, litigating on behalf of individual band members, representing clients at environmental public hearings, and assisting communities in asserting their right to consultation and accommodation with various levels of government.

Natai is also a designated Qualified Mediator (Q.Med) and holds a Certificate in Mediating Disputes from Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation. She believes that mediation is a powerful tool for generating creative, practical and enduring resolutions to just about every dispute. Natai will design a mediation process that is tailored to each case, and, when suitable, proposes early mediation before starting litigation or shortly thereafter. You can read more about advanced mediation here. She serves on the Board of Directors of the ADR Institute of Ontario.

If she’s not at the office, you’ll find Natai biking along the Humber River with her husband and their twins.