Peter Graburn

FAMILY LAWYER, CALGARY

LinkedIn Profile

About Peter Graburn

Peter is a senior family law lawyer with over 35 years of experience in complex, high-profile litigation in the areas of civil rights, aboriginal and family law. In civil rights litigation, Peter acted for the Alberta government in the wrongful sterilization case at the Provincial Training School (Michener Centre) in Red Deer. In aboriginal litigation, Peter acted for the Federal government and numerous First Nations in the areas of Treaty Land and Benefits Entitlement, Consultation, Economic Development and Residential School compensation. More recently, Peter has acted in all areas of family law litigation, primarily in the areas of high conflict, high income, and high net worth separation and divorce.

In family law litigation, Peter practices across the full spectrum of the dispute resolution continuum, from Mediation, to Mediation / Arbitration, to Courtroom litigation. He is known by his Clients to be “great in court”, by other lawyers to be a “common sense and effective lawyer” and by the Court to take a “measured and responsible approach”.

Passions and Achievements

Family – a husband, father and grandfather;

Fighting Bullies – whether formally diagnosed as a Narcissist or not;

Skiing – Sunshine Village is our Home Resort;

Travel – Hawaii and Europe, mostly.

Notable Victories

In Giroux vs. Swan River First Nation (2007 FCA 108) (Federal Court of Appeal), Peter was successful in overturning a ruling to remit a First Nation election decision to a differently constituted committee than established by the First Nation arguing the importance of Aboriginal self-government (including the right to set, hear and decide matters regarding elections to their governing body themselves) was a matter of public interest to the members of the First Nation;

In Cameron vs. Aubin (2012 unreported) (Alberta Court of King’s Bench), Peter was successful in ensuring the ‘voice of the child’ was heard for a 14-year-old girl wanting to go to a specific high school by retaining Counsel for the Child;

In the private and confidential process of Mediation / Arbitration, Peter has been successful in:
- obtaining increasing overnight parenting time of a 2-year-old child where the parent had been denied any overnight parenting time since separation;
- setting child support at $12,658 per month (based on an income of $1.5M) where the parent’s income was $3.4M per year; –

Extra Training/Designations

Civil Trial Advocacy College, The Advocates Society, February 2012
Parenting Coordination and Arbitration, Alberta Family Mediation Society, September 2015

Professional Memberships

Canadian Bar Association

Other Languages spoken

French (Conversational)

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