Ariella Linda Shuster

Ariella Shuster is a collaborative law attorney, mediator, and trained coach serving families across Washington State. Her practice focuses on out-of-court divorce, with the goal of helping clients move through separation with their dignity intact and their relationships with co-parents, children, and themselves preserved.

Ariella spent fifteen years as a trial attorney before concluding that courtrooms are rarely the right place to resolve family matters. The traditional approach of "lawyering up" at the start of a divorce, she has observed, frequently makes a difficult situation worse: it escalates fear, hardens positions, and shifts control of the most personal decisions in someone's life to a judge who barely knows them. The collaborative process is built to do the opposite. It keeps clients in control, keeps communication open, and keeps the legal mechanics from compounding the human cost.

In addition to her legal practice, Ariella has spent more than a decade as a Professional Life Coach. This dual training informs how she works with clients: substantive legal advocacy where it's needed, paired with the emotional and behavioral support that divorce actually requires.

Ariella is Co-Chair of the Collaborative Law Section of the King County Bar Association and serves on its Family Law Executive Committee. She is a Leadership Academy graduate of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and serves on its Ethics and Professional Standards and Practice Group committees. She is the Diversity Bar Liaison and a board member of the Cardozo Law Society, and has been recognized by the Washington State Bar Association for her work on divorces involving domestic violence. She is a pro-bono mediator with the King County Family Law Settlement Conference Program.

Ariella holds a Certificate in Mediation from the University of Washington and a Certificate in Divorce Mediation from Forrest S. Mosten. She is the author of Divorce With Dignity: How to End Your Marriage Without Ruining Your Life or the Lives of Your Children (2023), has appeared on FOX and ABC television, and has been published in the Washington State Bar Bulletin.

A New Yorker transplanted to Seattle, Ariella is admitted to practice in Washington and New York.