Roth Elder Law is pleased to welcome (back) Kristin Schamel as the newest addition to our team. Kristin is originally from the Chicago area, and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In 1995, Kristin moved to California with her husband, a proud United States Marine, and attended the Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, earning her Juris Doctor in just two years. After graduation, Kristin practiced law in California for seven years, traveling frequently to courts throughout the state representing clients in employment law, civil rights law, and construction law issues.
When Kristin’s husband retired from the Marine Corps, the family moved to the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, where Kristin helped Patrick open the Law Offices of Patrick J. Roth (now known as Roth Elder Law). After two years working with Patrick, Kristin’s youngest son was diagnosed with autism. Kristin dedicated herself to being a full-time mother, caring for her children. She spent the next several years fighting to find and secure all of the help, resources, and services her youngest son would need to help him achieve his full potential in academics and in life.
Once her youngest son reached school-age, Kristin was faced with a new battle to ensure her son received appropriate special education services in the right classroom setting. While still fully engaged in raising and assisting her own son as a stay at home mother, Kristin offered her knowledge and experience to fellow special-needs families by taking on the role of Parent Advocate on a pro bono basis, attending school and special education committee meetings to help the parents of special needs children negotiate with school staff and administrators to ensure each child could receive the resources he or she needed to be more successful in school.
Ten years after Kristin first left, a friendly conversation between Kristin and Patrick led her back to Corning, New York as a full-time mediator. Studying at both the Harvard Law School’s Mediation Program and the New York Peace Institute, Kristin learned mediation theory, methods, and techniques from legendary professors, authors, and practitioners alongside some of the best and brightest legal and professional minds from around the world. Kristin now leads Roth Elder Law’s new Mediation Program.
When she is not busy being a mother and a hard-working attorney-mediator, Kristin is also an adjunct professor, teaching Paralegal Studies and Business Law at a local college. Kristin also volunteers as a panelist mediator at the Community Dispute Resolution Centers in Chemung, Steuben, and Tompkins Counties in central New York. She also continues to help families as a Special Education attorney-advocate.
Welcome back to the team, Kristin!