Lisa Gelman

About Lisa Gelman

Lisa Gelman has spent more than 25 years helping people through divorce, separation and parenting disputes, and is the senior lawyer who founded Gelman & Associates. Clients get someone who'd rather negotiate a settlement wherever one's possible but can be tough when a case calls for it. Gelman also has professional training on narcissism and narcissistic abuse.

The road into law wasn't a straight line. After law school, Gelman took a few detours before settling into family law, and has practised it since being called to the Ontario bar in 1995. Six years later, in 2001, Gelman & Associates opened its doors. These days a wider audience knows the name from Ask Gelman, a bi-weekly Toronto Star feature that began in 2025.

There's an entrepreneur's streak, too. As an undergraduate, Lisa Gelman co-owned a business with Karen Kotansky, now the firm's COO, that hired fellow students to go door to door selling bulk paper goods. Gelman has also owned an ice cream store and a travel company that once took a singles group to Nepal for a large online dating site. In 2016, PROFIT and Canadian Business named Gelman to the W100 list of Canada's Top Female Entrepreneurs.

Away from the office, Gelman is a big sports fan who runs, cycles, roller blades and water skis, barefoot included. Travel is another love, with Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Peru and Israel among the favourite trips. Gelman is also a parent of three.