Our Team

Shane was born and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He attended the University of Saskatchewan and obtained his Bachelor of Law degree in 2002. Shane was admitted to the British Columbia bar in 2003 and the Alberta bar in 2012. He moved to Dawson Creek in 2002 to article with Mitchell Schuller. His primary areas of practice are corporate/commercial, real estate, wills and estates.

Shane is a member of the Sunrise Rotary Club of Dawson Creek and the Canadian Bar Association. In his spare time, Shane enjoys spending time with his wife and son, playing soccer, watching hockey, reading and traveling.

Garth was born in Minnedosa, Manitoba. Having drunk from the waters of the Peace River as a young boy, he returned to the Peace in 1989 to article with and then work at Mitchell, Schuller & Dellow in Dawson Creek. He has continued to work for the firm as it transitioned over the years to Mitchell Schuller and, at the beginning of 2012, to Allen & Associates. Garth has degrees in Spanish (BA), Political Science (MA) and Law (LLB, 1988), all from the University of British Columbia. Between and during degrees, he spent time working in mobile home and holiday trailer factories (Red Deer AB), taxi driving (Vancouver) and skydiving (UBC Club). He is married to Ingrid van Someren and they have two sons, Karl and Richard. He is grandfather to Simone, Celeste and Hendrix. Garth is a member of the Dawson Creek Municipal Library Board, Citizens on Patrol and is the Chair of the South Peace District Crime Prevention Association Board.

Garth’s area of practice is Family Law. His strong preference is to use Alternate Dispute Resolution methods to resolve issues arising in separations and in divorce proceedings. Direct negotiation, mediation and the early stage conferencing in Provincial and Supreme Court proceedings methods are respectful of the parties’ situations, hopes and plans. These methods allow the parties (often in somewhat difficult and emotional circumstances) to sort through their rights and obligations to one another and to their children in less costly, more private, more timely and ultimately more personally satisfying ways than is usually the case with litigated resolutions. Garth also is the firm’s lawyer dealing with the firm’s contract with the BC Ministry of Justice for legal services in Dawson Creek and Chetwynd for the Ministry of Children and Family Development (Child, Family and Community Services Act).