Founded in 2021 by Katherine Kimel, the firm has grown from a single practitioner into a team of lawyers and legal professionals who work only in this corner of the law.

That narrowness is deliberate. Estate disputes sit at the intersection of family history, money and grief, and Katherine Kimel built the firm on the view that clients going through this are better served by lawyers who do this work daily rather than occasionally. Kimel Law Group takes on will challenges, disputes between executors and beneficiaries, applications to remove estate trustees, passing of accounts disagreements, and questions of testamentary capacity and undue influence. It also acts in guardianship and capacity proceedings, an area closely tied to estate work but often overlooked by generalist firms.

Since opening its doors, the firm has represented clients throughout Ontario, not just in Toronto, reflecting how often estate disputes cross regional lines within families. Katherine Kimel remains its Founder and Principal Lawyer, and under her direction the firm has built a reputation among referral sources for being responsive and direct with clients at a time when many are dealing with a difficult, and often the first, experience of litigation in their lives.

Kimel Law Group’s growth has tracked a broader pattern in Ontario, where estate litigation has become a steadier feature of the legal system as families deal with more complex assets and blended relationships. Rather than diversifying into adjacent areas such as estate planning or general litigation, the firm has kept its focus narrow. It positions this discipline, not breadth, as the reason clients come to it for contested and high-conflict matters.

Below, Katherine Kimel discusses how the firm started, how its practice has developed, and what she has learned about running a focused litigation practice in Ontario.

Interview with Katherine Kimel, Founder and Principal Lawyer of Kimel Law Group

Let’s start at the beginning. Why did you decide to build a firm around estate litigation specifically, rather than a broader litigation practice?

Estate disputes have their own rhythm. The legal issues can be technical, but the underlying situation is almost always personal: siblings who disagree about a parent’s wishes, an executor who isn’t communicating, a family member who suspects undue influence. I wanted a firm built around understanding both parts of that, the law and the human dynamic, rather than treating estate matters as one file type among many.

What did the first year or two of running the firm actually look like?

It meant being very deliberate about what we took on. We turned away work that wasn’t estates-related, even when it would have been easier to say yes. That discipline is part of why the firm has been able to grow the way it has. Clients came to us because they’d heard we only did this kind of work, and that made the early referrals feel earned rather than accidental.

How has the firm changed since 2021?

We’ve gone from a single lawyer to a team, which changes how you think about the work. I’m no longer the only person a client speaks with, so we’ve had to be careful about how we train people and how we communicate as a group. What hasn’t changed is the standard we hold ourselves to on responsiveness. Clients in estate disputes are often anxious, and slow answers make that worse.

What kinds of matters take up most of your time now?

A good deal of our work involves disputes over how an estate is being administered, disagreements between an executor and beneficiaries, or questions about whether an estate trustee should be removed. We also do a fair amount of capacity and guardianship work, which overlaps with estates more than people expect. Someone’s capacity to manage their own affairs often becomes an issue right alongside questions about their estate plan.

Is there a part of this work you find particularly demanding?

Managing expectations around timeline. Litigation in Ontario doesn’t move quickly, and estate disputes are no exception. Clients are often dealing with a loss and want resolution, but the court process has its own pace. Part of our job is being honest about that from the outset rather than letting someone assume it will move faster than it will.

How do you think about measuring whether the firm is doing its job well?

Results in litigation are never fully within your control, so I look at whether we gave sound advice, communicated clearly, and pushed the matter toward the best realistic outcome available. That’s a different standard than simply counting wins, but it’s the one that holds up over time.

Where do you see the firm’s practice heading?

We expect estate litigation in Ontario to keep growing in volume as families deal with more complicated assets and living arrangements. We’re not looking to expand into other practice areas. We’d rather keep building depth in the work we already do, which is estate disputes, administration, and capacity matters, and keep that as the entire focus of the firm.

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