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Barbara S. Kellman

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Practice Areas:

  • Divorce

Biography

Ms. Kellman is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School (cum laude 1983) and of the Boston University School of Social Work (MSW, 1980).  Ms. Kellman practiced law in Minnesota and, beginning in 1986, Massachusetts for thirty years.

Ms. Kellman served as General Counsel to the New England Deaconess Hospital  (later Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and their parent companies) for ten years, supervising and providing legal work in all areas of health care, including employment and patient care.  Later she was Counsel to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Board of Registration in Nursing for four years.

Ms. Kellman represents individual men and women in divorce and family law matters and provides mediation services to divorcing couples.   She began her current practice in 2010.  Ms. Kellman is a trained Collaborative Lawyer.   She is a Board Member and Vice President of the Massachusetts Council of Family Mediation and a member of the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council.  Ms. Kellman mediated cases for the Community Dispute Settlement Center (CDSC) for over fifteen years.

Ms. Kellman has extensive training in family law, as well as in mediation and negotiation, including courses at the Harvard Project on Negotiation, CDSC, the Equal Opportunity Commission (where she also served as a Mediator) and the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General.  She has trained and coached mediation students with CDSC and at Newton North High School, as well as in her private practice. She was affiliated with The Mediation Group in Brookline for two years, providing mediation services and working on health care projects. She served as a volunteer mediator at Boston Municipal Count and Brighton District Court.

Current Employment Position

  • Partner

Past Positions

  • Choate Hall and Stewart, Associate, 1986 to 1987
  • New England Deaconess Hospital, General Counsel, 1987 to 1997
  • The Mediation Group, Senior Consultant, 1998 to 2001
  • Independent Mediation Practice, Mediator, Trainer, Consultant, 2001 to 2006
  • Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing, Board Counsel, 2006 to 2010

Education

  • The University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, Michigan
    • J.D.
    • Honors: cum laude
  • University of Michigan Residential College, Ann Arbor, Michigan
    • B.A.
    • Major: Theater
  • Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
    • M.S.W.

Bar Admissions

  • Minnesota, 1983
  • Massachusetts, 1986

Pro-Bono Activities

  • Volunteer Mediator Community Dispute Settlement Center
  • Volunteer Lawyer for the Day, Norfolk and Suffolk County Probate Courts

Professional Associations

  • Massachusetts Council of Family Mediation, Vice President
  • Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council, Member