About

Paula grew up in Dartmouth and Sackville. She decided at 15 that she was going to be a lawyer, encouraged by her family (based on her love of arguing the opposing viewpoint). She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Saint Mary’s University and went from there to Law School at Dalhousie University, graduating in 1986.

After graduation, Paula completed her year of articles with a law firm that practiced some family law, but mostly criminal law. She assisted on several high-profile criminal trials. She realized that she was far more attracted to Family Law, helping regular people whose world had changed in ways they had never expected- sometimes gradually and sometimes suddenly- to make the best of a sad situation for themselves and their children.

Paula joined a medium-sized general practice law firm in Sackville, where she practiced exclusively family law. In 1993, she and two of her fellow lawyers left that firm to form a partnership, Melnick Doll Condran (later MDC Law), which continued in Bedford for nearly 33 years.

At Melnick Doll Condran, Paula focused her career on Family Law, Real Estate Law and Wills and Estates. She loves each of those three areas of law for different reasons, but she loves getting to help her clients in each practice.

Paula has been a member of the Canadian Bar Association since 1987, and a member of the Real Estate Lawyers Association of Nova Scotia since 2008. She has appeared in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court (Family Division) hundreds of times and has taken worthy cases to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal. Her approach to the practice of law is guided by a deep sense of integrity and a passion for helping her clients navigate complex legal matters, while always considering the practicalities involved, such as cost and time considerations.

Beyond her professional life, Paula has been an active and engaged volunteer. Over the years, she taught adults through Dartmouth Literacy Network, served on and then chaired the Board of Directors for a local non-profit organization and dedicated over a decade of volunteer service to the IWK Emergency Department, as a member of the Quality Committee and the IWK Emergency Family Advisory Council.

Paula has been married since 1987 and is the proud mother of two adult children. Outside of her work, she enjoys gardening, hiking and traveling overseas with her husband and spending time with her children and their partners. She has enjoyed the same book club for the last 16 years.