Naomi Iskra founded Keystone Legal to act for clients whose personal lives and business interests are bound up with one another. The firm advises and represents individuals, families and privately held businesses across Alberta, and its contested work proceeds at the Calgary Courts Centre. Before she came to the law, she was an owner in a business she helped build and later sold, and she brings that experience to the files she now takes on as counsel.
In estates, she acts on challenges to the validity of wills and claims of undue influence, on disputes over the conduct of executors and contested passings of accounts, and on the administration of estates, including the succession of farm families. In family matters, she acts on divorce and separation, parenting, child and spousal support, the division of family property, and applications for emergency protection and restraining orders. Her commercial work extends to shareholder, partnership and contract disputes within closely held companies. She also brings civil claims arising from intimate partner violence, harassment and defamation, which may begin with a cease and desist letter and continue to an application for an injunction. She appears before the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench, represents professionals in discipline proceedings, and acts in mediation and arbitration.
Her advisory practice serves founders, professionals and privately held businesses in estate planning, farm succession, and business and governance. That work ranges from contract negotiation to ownership and governance structures and the protection of personal and commercial reputation. Clients often come to her when a separation, a death or a change in the ownership of a business requires their personal, financial and corporate interests to be dealt with together and in confidence.
She prepares every file as though it will be heard. She keeps command of the financial and evidentiary record and of the disclosure obligations and procedural rules that govern it, so that any proposal she makes in negotiation carries the weight of a case ready to proceed. Where settlement serves the client, she negotiates on the strength of that preparation, and where it does not, she takes the matter through the application and trial stages.
Throughout law school, she provided legal services to families through the Pro Bono Family Law Project of Pro Bono Students Canada and volunteered with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association on civil rights and equality advocacy.
Before law school, she was an equity partner and executive in a professional corporation, and she remained with the business through the diligence, negotiation and closing when it was acquired by a national consolidator in an eight-figure transaction. That experience gave her a working knowledge of governance, ownership transitions and deal structure from the inside. It also gave her a familiarity with corporate financial statements, tax filings and the arrangements through which income and assets move within closely held enterprises, and she draws on it when reading a family property file as much as a shareholder dispute.
She holds a Juris Doctor and a Bachelor of Civil Law from McGill University’s Faculty of Law, whose integrated program trains lawyers in both the common law and the civil law traditions. After completing the French baccalauréat, she earned an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Études françaises with First Class Standing, a Bachelor of Education in French as a Second Language and a Certificate of Bilingualism from York University’s Glendon College. She is a member of the Law Society of Alberta and works in English and French. She keeps her practice current through continuing legal education, chiefly the programs of Osgoode Professional Development and the Legal Education Society of Alberta, with particular attention to estate litigation and family law.
Away from practice she spends her time with her children and her chihuahuas, plays the transverse flute, and dances ‘ori Tahiti, the traditional dance of French Polynesia.
Andrew is a law student at the firm and a Juris Doctor candidate in the French Common Law Program at the University of Ottawa.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from York University’s Glendon College, where he graduated with First Class Standing and earned a Certificate of Bilingualism, and he completed a French baccalauréat in literature at Lycée Henri Matisse in Vence. He spent the summer of 2025 as a summer law student at a law firm in the Greater Toronto Area, and before law school he worked in administrative and operational roles with a professional practice in Vaughan, Ontario. He has also coached competitive youth soccer, travelling with his teams to tournaments abroad.
His work at the firm is carried out under supervision and has given him a close view of how private client and civil litigation files are run. He works in English and French.
Rebecca is a law student at the firm and a Juris Doctor candidate in the French Common Law Program at the University of Ottawa.
She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in French and Hispanic Studies from York University’s Glendon College, together with a Certificate of Bilingual Proficiency, and she completed a French baccalauréat in literature at Lycée Henri Matisse in Vence. Her academic work was recognized with the York University Continuing Student Scholarship and the Escott Reid Bilingual Excellence Scholarship. Before law school, she taught in Toronto and Markham, giving individual French instruction to students at varying levels and supporting classroom and curriculum development in a Montessori setting.
Her time at the firm is spent under the supervision of counsel and has taken her across both the private client and the civil litigation sides of the practice. She works in English, French and Spanish.
Rhonda runs the firm’s finances. She keeps the books, processes payroll, prepares source deductions and GST remittances, and prepares the firm’s year-end accounts and its tax filings with the Canada Revenue Agency.
Her experience in the field spans thirty-five years. From 1989 to 2024, she held the payroll and finance function of a veterinary practice, joining in its first year and staying with it as it grew from a single clinic into a substantial group, through to its acquisition by a national organization. She carried its payroll and its reporting to the Canada Revenue Agency throughout, and handled the financial side of daily operations through the preparation, due diligence and transition that the sale required. She works in QuickBooks and the principal accounting and payroll programs.
Rhonda holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Guelph and a Bachelor of Education from York University in Toronto. She began her working life in teaching before moving into financial administration, and she works in English and French.
She has followed the financial markets closely for decades, is an experienced private investor and runs a business of her own. Away from work, she rides horses and hikes. Her family roots are in Friesland, in the northern Netherlands.
Outside work, Rhonda rides horses and hikes.
Raj Bahadur looks after the marketing of Keystone Legal and much of the operational work behind the practice. He manages keystone-legal.ca and its presence in search, the firm’s Google Business Profile, LinkedIn page and directory listings, and the firm’s email accounts and office systems. He also supports the firm’s bookkeeping by preparing the banking and accounting records its accountants rely on each month, and assists with administration as the practice requires.
Raj brings more than ten years of experience supporting professional services firms and small businesses with practice management and website software. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Indira Gandhi National Open University and has completed advanced professional accounting studies with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He works in English, Hindi and Punjabi.
Joshua Iskra is the legal assistant at Keystone Legal in Cochrane and the first point of contact for clients on scheduling, documents and payments. He keeps each file moving, prepares and organizes documents, and attends to filings at the Calgary Courts Centre. As a Commissioner for Oaths in and for the Province of Alberta, he commissions clients’ affidavits and statutory declarations, in person or remotely.
Before joining the firm, Joshua taught for three years with the Calgary Catholic School District. He holds an Honours Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Education from Ontario Tech University, and is a certified teacher in Ontario and Alberta. He walks clients through each step of the process, which matters a great deal to those facing a family or estate matter for the first time.
Nikolai Pacleb is the administrative assistant at Keystone Legal and looks after the daily administration of the practice. He handles client intake and conflict checks, books consultations and meetings, manages correspondence and the firm’s calendars, opens and closes matters, and saves every document to the client’s file the day it arrives. He also prepares electronic filings with the Court of King’s Bench, under the lawyer’s direction, for the firm’s family law, estate and litigation clients across Alberta.
Before joining the firm, Nikolai spent more than a decade in client service and operations support for North American businesses, most recently in the United States, where prompt replies and careful records were the standard he worked to. He holds an Associate degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management from Centro Escolar University in Manila and works in English and Tagalog.
