Schnurr Kirsh Oelbaum Tator LLP
8 lawyers · Established 1974 · City of Toronto, Durham Region
One of 2,345 law firms listed in Toronto, and one of 679 handling Wills, Estates & Trusts.
About Schnurr Kirsh Oelbaum Tator LLP
Schnurr Kirsh Oelbaum Tator LLP is a Toronto firm that has practiced in estate litigation since 1974. Its eight lawyers act for estate trustees, beneficiaries, and claimants in contested wills, passings of accounts, trustee disputes, dependant support claims, and disputes over powers of attorney and guardianship. The firm also handles applications under Ontario's Substitute Decisions Act and offers mediation and arbitration, so clients can try to settle an estate dispute before it reaches trial. Its main office is in a Queen Street West tower in downtown Toronto, and a smaller office in Bowmanville, Ontario serves clients east of the city.
The firm's name reflects its founding partners, and Brian Schnurr, one of them, wrote two texts in the field, Estate Litigation and The Annotated Ontario Estates Statutes. Lawyers at the firm still contribute chapters to both books and lecture for the Law Society of Ontario, the Ontario Bar Association, and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners Canada. Felice Kirsh is a Certified Specialist in Estates and Trusts Law and has been named to Best Lawyers in Canada for Trusts and Estates every year since 2008, and Canadian Lawyer Magazine has repeatedly listed the firm among the country's top wills, trusts and estates law boutiques.
Practice areas
Milestones & recognition
- The firm has practiced in estate litigation since 1974.
- Founding partner Brian Schnurr wrote two texts in the field, Estate Litigation and The Annotated Ontario Estates Statutes, and lawyers at the firm still contribute chapters to both.
- Sender Tator received the Ontario Bar Association's Hoffstein Book Prize Award in 2010 for contributions to writing on Wills, Trusts and Estates.
- Felice Kirsh is a Certified Specialist in Estates and Trusts Law and has been named to Best Lawyers in Canada for Trusts and Estates every year since 2008.
- Jordan Oelbaum was an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, lecturing in wills and estates, and is a past instructor for the estates section of the Law Society's Bar Admission Course.
- Canadian Lawyer Magazine has named the firm one of the country's top wills, trusts and estates law boutiques in more than one year, including 2021 and 2023.
In the community
- Sandra Schnurr has supervised law students volunteering through Pro Bono Students Canada's Wills Project, which prepares wills and powers of attorney for qualifying members of the public.
- A lawyer at the firm serves as Vice-Chair of the Ontario Bar Association's Trusts and Estates Law Section for the 2025 to 2026 term.
Good to know
Wheelchair accessible
By appointmentLawyers 8
Felice C. Kirsh
Partner
Wills, Estates & TrustsCivil Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Jordan D. Oelbaum
Partner
Wills, Estates & Trusts
Lisa M. Fenech
Lawyer
Wills, Estates & Trusts
Mitchell J. Rattner
Lawyer
Wills, Estates & Trusts
Phillipa Goddard
Lawyer
Wills, Estates & Trusts
Rebecca Xie
Lawyer
Wills, Estates & Trusts
Rob Levesque
Lawyer
Wills, Estates & Trusts
Sender B. Tator
Partner
Wills, Estates & Trusts
Certified Specialists
A designation granted by the Law Society of Ontario, not a self-declared area of focus.
This firm’s lawyers at a glance
- Called to the bar
- 1986–2023 · median 20 years in practice 6 of 8 lawyers
- Law schools
- Osgoode Hall Law School (4), Michigan State University, Detroit College of Law, University of Toronto, University of Western Ontario 7 of 8 lawyers
- Languages on the roster
- Maltese
Who handles what
Offices 2
The neighbourhood
The firm's Toronto office sits in the Cadillac Fairview Tower at 20 Queen Street West, a 1979 tower attached to the south end of the Eaton Centre with direct access to the Queen Street subway stop. Old and New City Hall stand just to the west, in the same stretch of the downtown core.
The Bowmanville office is in a town that grew up in the nineteenth century as a mill town, now part of the Municipality of Clarington in Durham Region, about 75 kilometres east of Toronto. Bowmanville's older neighbourhoods still show a lot of that history, with well preserved Italianate, Gothic Revival, and Queen Anne buildings downtown.
Frequently asked questions
- Can Schnurr Kirsh Oelbaum Tator help me challenge a will?
- Yes. Contested wills are one of the firm's main areas of practice, along with disputes over how an estate trustee is acting and how estate accounts are prepared.
- What if I was left out of a will but depended on the person who died?
- The firm handles dependant support claims. Ontario law lets a dependant who wasn't adequately provided for ask the court to vary how an estate is distributed.
- Can the firm act if a family member has lost the capacity to manage their own affairs?
- The firm practices in mental incompetency litigation and handles applications under Ontario's Substitute Decisions Act, including disputes over powers of attorney and guardianship.
- Does the firm offer mediation instead of a full court case?
- Yes. The firm offers mediation and arbitration to try to resolve estate disputes at an early stage, and Felice Kirsh conducts estate mediations throughout Ontario.
- Where are the firm's offices?
- The main office is in Toronto at 20 Queen Street West, Suite 2750, with a second office in Bowmanville at 181 Church Street.
- How long has the firm focused on estate litigation?
- Since 1974, when the firm began practicing exclusively in estate litigation.
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Real Estate LawFamily LawCivil Litigation & Dispute ResolutionListing compiled from the firm’s public website in August 2026. Verify licence status in the Law Society of Ontario directory ↗