---
title: "Eric Kirshner ✦ Partner ✦ Goldwater Droit"
meta:
  "og:description": "Eric Kirshner is a Partner at Goldwater Droit. His core practice covers family and matrimonial litigation, estate disputes, as well as civil law matters. Called to the Quebec Bar in 1993, he has represented hundreds of clients over more than three decades."
  "og:title": "Eric Kirshner ✦ Partner ✦ Goldwater Droit"
  description: "Eric Kirshner is a Partner at Goldwater Droit. His core practice covers family and matrimonial litigation, estate disputes, as well as civil law matters. Called to the Quebec Bar in 1993, he has represented hundreds of clients over more than three decades."
---

![Eric Kirshner](https://goldwaterdroit.com/_vercel/image?url=%2F_composites%2Fv1%2Fprofile%2Feric-kirshner%2Fportrait@2x.webp&w=1280&q=100)

###### Our Team

# Eric Kirshner

[Email](https://goldwaterdroit.com/mailto:ek@goldwaterdroit.com)

[**Book Now**](https://book.goldwaterdroit.com/v2/#book/service/46)

[Email](https://goldwaterdroit.com/mailto:ek@goldwaterdroit.com)

[**Book Now**](https://book.goldwaterdroit.com/v2/#book/service/46)

- ###### Bar Admission
  - Quebec, 1993
- ###### Education
  - Certificate in Collaborative Law, Quebec Collaborative Law Group (QCLG)
  - LL.B., Laval University, 1992
  - B.A., Concordia University, 1989
- ###### Languages Spoken
  - English, French
- ###### Groups & Associations
  - The Family Law Lawyers Association (AAADFQ)
  - Member, Liaison Committee with the Superior Court in Family Matters

##### Practice Areas

- [Family Law](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/services/family-law)
- [Asset & Property Division](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/services/asset-property-division)
- [Constitutional & Appellate Litigation](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/services/constitutional-appellate-litigation)
- [Divorce & Separation](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/services/divorce-separation)
- [International Child Custody & Hague Convention](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/services/international-child-custody)
- [Marriage & Cohabitation Agreements](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/services/marriage-cohabitation-agreements)
- [Parenting, Custody & Access](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/services/parenting-custody-access)
- [Religious Divorce & Faith-Based Marriage](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/services/religious-divorce-faith-based-marriage)
- [Estate & Succession Disputes](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/services/estate-succession-disputes)
- [Civil Law](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/services/civil-law)

**Eric Kirshner** is a Partner at Goldwater Droit. His core practice covers family and matrimonial litigation, estate disputes, as well as civil law matters. Called to the Quebec Bar in 1993, he has represented hundreds of clients over more than three decades.

He appears regularly before the Superior Court of Quebec and the Quebec Court of Appeal. His matrimonial practice experience is vast, from exceptional compensatory allowance proceedings (including one judgment awarding over $1,000,000 after a 21-year marriage) to unequal divisions of family patrimony, partition of the matrimonial regimes like partnership or acquests and separation as to property, and provisions for costs in high-conflict files (including an award of $68,000 in a case involving allegations of parental alienation). He has experience litigating cases involving notional income and net worth of high-earning spouses, the enforcement of section 21.1 of the _Divorce Act_ to remove barriers to religious remarriage (_ghet_), and motions to retract separation judgments on grounds of fraud and vice of consent. His trial record also includes a two-day contempt hearing in which he defeated allegations tied to 22 court orders across 13 judgments, and a provisional-measures hearing in which his client's former spouse pleaded guilty to criminal charges for a fabricated conjugal violence complaint.

On the custody side, he has obtained a plethora of different parenting time arrangements and weekly alternating schedules, acquired exclusive parental authority judgments, and international relocation orders with detailed access terms.

Beyond family law, he has experience with latent defect applications relating to residential property, notary professional-liability actions, federal government construction contract disputes, and obtained a permanent injunction compelling a private school to honour an annual enrolment contract. His record includes securing one of the largest compensatory allowance quantums reported for a de facto spouse in Quebec, and precedent-setting results on seizures before judgment and professional liability.

Eric served on the Liaison Committee with the Superior Court in Family Matters, contributing to bench-bar proposals on the administration of family justice. He also holds a certificate in collaborative law from the Quebec Collaborative Law Group, and regularly guides couples through joint divorce applications. He earned his LL.B. from the Université Laval in 1992 and his B.A. from Concordia University in 1989.

He is a member of the Quebec Family Law Lawyers Association (AAADFQ), and has represented clients as far afield as the Federal Court on Crown contract disputes.

He works in English and French.

Eric is the rare triple-threat lawyer: he genuinely loves going to court for his clients, fights for them with the loyalty and concern of a close friend, and is constitutionally incapable of acting unethically.

If not a lawyer, he would have been a drummer in a rock and roll band. The temperament carries: Eric hits hard for his clients, sets the beat in his files, and brings the kind of reliability you want from the person at the back of the kit.

##### LITIGATION & PRACTICE HIGHLIGHTS

- [_Droit de la famille — 2399 (2023)_](https://canlii.ca/t/jv6np) - Appeared for the defendant father before the Superior Court in a contested custody and child-support proceeding involving allegations of parental alienation; obtained a substantial provision for costs of $68,000 in favour of the defendant with provisional execution notwithstanding appeal, recognizing the significant legal expenses required to defend against the plaintiff's claims and to address special expenses and support obligations.
- [_Droit de la famille — 231999 (2022)_](https://canlii.ca/t/jtpz1) - Advocated for the respondent and incidental appellant before the Quebec Court of Appeal on an appeal from a divorce judgment following a 21-year marriage in which the trial court had awarded a compensatory allowance of $1,985,086; on appeal, the compensatory allowance was reduced to $1,000,000 and spousal support was set at $1,800 per month, with both parties' appeals partially allowed in a complex case involving significant asset disputes.
- [_Droit de la famille — 211248 (2021)_](https://canlii.ca/t/jgtfz) - Advocated for the plaintiff mother before the Superior Court in a contested custody dispute involving two children aged 8 and 5, following an alleged incident of mutual physical assault between the parents; the Court ordered joint parental authority with majority parenting time to the father and a structured access schedule for the mother, with child support and proportional sharing of special expenses.
- [_J.D. et N.P. (2020)_](https://canlii.ca/t/jznqq) - Acted for the son and siblings before the Superior Court on an application concerning the homologation of a protective mandate for an 83-year-old woman declared incapacitated in 2021; the Court rejected the homologation of the existing mandate, opened a tutorship, and appointed the Curateur public du Québec as guardian with authority over the person and property, ordering quinquennial reassessment; authorized reimbursement of $40,000 in legal fees and costs incurred during the contested proceedings.
- [_Gardiner Estate of c. Young (2016)_](https://canlii.ca/t/gw07c) - Acted for the petitioner widower in a four-day trial before the Superior Court seeking to annul the will of the deceased (who died in September 2013 at age 87) and to declare the beneficiaries unworthy of inheriting, alleging the testator's incapacity and undue influence at the time the will was executed in the summer of 2013.- [_Droit de la famille — 151954 (2015)_](https://canlii.ca/t/gknvd) - Counsel to the defendant husband in divorce proceedings before the Superior Court on a contested motion under section 21.1 of the Divorce Act relating to the removal of barriers to religious remarriage (ghet).
- [_Droit de la famille — 14889 (2014)_](https://canlii.ca/t/g6nt2) - Advised and represented the plaintiff husband before the Superior Court (District of Longueuil) in defending the validity of a 1988 consent on accessory measures against the defendant wife's application to annul it on the grounds that she did not understand the value of what she was renouncing; the Court rejected the wife's application in its entirety, finding no vice of consent or fundamental error in the negotiation process, with costs..
- [_Droit de la famille — 121283 (2012)_](https://canlii.ca/t/frm9z) - Served as counsel to the defendant mother before the Superior Court in a contested custody and relocation hearing in which the mother sought to relocate to Virginia with the minor child; obtained authorization for the mother to relocate with the child, custody granted to the mother.
- [_Droit de la famille — 123126 (2012)_](https://canlii.ca/t/ftpl4) - Advised and represented the plaintiff husband before the Superior Court in a three-day contested hearing on provisional measures involving custody of twin five-year-old daughters, child support, and spousal support, in a case marked by the wife's false complaint of conjugal violence to police and her subsequent guilty plea to criminal charges relating to that fabrication.
- [_Droit de la famille — 113082 (2011)_](https://canlii.ca/t/fndpz) - Counsel to the defendant husband before the Superior Court on final accessory measures following a 1991 marriage under separation of property; obtained joint custody of the child, child support of $386.44 per month retroactive to July 2010, partition of the family patrimony including a $67,102 RRSP rollover and $14,077.50 equalizing payment, and a compensatory allowance of $350,000 under article 427 C.C.Q., with costs of $100,000 awarded against the defendant.
- [_J.D. c. R.U. (2006)_](https://canlii.ca/t/1mlmt) - Acted for the defendant/applicant wife before the Superior Court on a motion to disqualify the opposing party's law firm on conflict-of-interest grounds, arising from a senior attorney's arrival at that specialized family-law firm after having previously represented the wife; addressed the professional obligations set out in articles 3.06.01 and following of the Code of Ethics of Advocates; the Court granted the motion, disqualifying the firm representing the husband from further conduct of the matter.
- [_J. D. c. R. U. CanLII (2004)_](https://canlii.ca/t/1jrh8) - Acted for the defendant wife before the Superior Court in a contested divorce opposing parties married in 1976 and separated in August 2001, the wife residing in New York and the husband in Montréal; the Court pronounced divorce, ordered spousal support of $4,166.66 per month, child support of $1,504 per month, a lump sum of $350,000 satisfied in part by transfer of Israeli property, and a $25,000 provision for costs, while rejecting claims relating to the family residence.
- [_Slakmon v. Ritchie, CanLII (2004)_](https://canlii.ca/t/1j6jw) - Acted for the plaintiffs in a multi-day civil trial before the Superior Court claiming latent defects in a residential property located on Metcalfe Avenue in Westmount, purchased in June 1999 for $375,000, alleging hidden structural defects not disclosed by the vendors or real estate agents.
- [_Glikstein c. West Island College CanLII (2003)_](https://canlii.ca/t/6042) - Acted for the petitioner parents in an urgent application before the Superior Court for a permanent injunction to compel a private school (West Island College) to honour the annual contract for the academic year 2003–2004 and permit their son to continue his secondary studies.
- [_L. F.(P. v. T. H. CanLII (2002)_](https://canlii.ca/t/gnx08) - Counsel to the defendant before the Superior Court in a contested family-law trial addressing spousal support and partition of the family patrimony, within a complex long-marriage matter marked by changes of counsel on the opposing side; the Court's judgment addressed quantum, duration, and form of spousal support in light of the criteria under section 15.2 of the Divorce Act and the Moge and Peter v. Beblow jurisprudence.
- [_Roger Gauthier Inc. v. Canada, CanLII (1999)_](https://canlii.ca/t/45r6) - Acted for the plaintiff corporation in a civil action before the Federal Court involving contractual disputes with the Crown arising from a government construction contract, with Belcourt Construction Company as mis-en-cause.
- [_Droit de la famille — 121454 (1998)_](https://canlii.ca/t/frtr0) - Appeared as counsel for the defendant husband before the Superior Court in a four-day contested divorce trial involving a 30-year marriage contracted in 1978 under the regime of separation of property, in which the wife sought exclusive ownership of the family residence, a compensatory allowance, and a lump sum.
- [_Nuccio c. Bechara ès qualités Notaire CanLII (1998)_](https://canlii.ca/t/1kq6d) - Acted as co-counsel in a civil action before the Superior Court brought by property purchasers against a notary alleging breach of the duty of counsel in documenting a property sale and mortgage transaction, where the plaintiffs were unsophisticated, non-francophone buyers who signed an exorbitant mortgage guarantee clause without understanding it; the court partially allowed the action, condemning the notary to pay $51,000 in damages, finding that the notary had failed in his duty of diligence, with costs.