Shirley has been practicing family law since 1991, and fertility law since 1996. Shirley’s office is located in Toronto, Canada, but in the context of fertility law, she assists people all over the world. Shirley has worked with clinics, hospitals, intended parents, egg/sperm donors and gestational carriers for over twenty years. She has worked with all manner of reproductive technology arrangements, and diligently ensures the required agreements conform with the changing legal landscape in Canada.

Shirley is also a leading Canadian lawyer with respect to preparing and attending to court and government applications dealing with cross border, national and international, birth registration issues that arise in the context of assisted reproductive technology. Shirley is the first lawyer in Ontario to have obtained a parentage declaration in a surrogacy situation in which the intended parents had no genetic connection to the child. She has been invited to speak at conferences and seminars in both Canada and the US, including the Ontario Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the National Judges Institute (Ontario), the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, the University of Toronto, Osgoode Hall Law School, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, the Law Society of Upper Canada, and the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys, of which she is an elected Fellow.

Shirley is currently on the Executive of the Law Special Interest Group of the CFAS (Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society). Shirley is one of the few lawyers in Canada who has extensive experience in both family law and fertility law, and as a result, has a unique understanding of how these two worlds intersect.