Kira Elise Willig has been practicing marital and family law in Miami-Dade County since 2000. Kira represents parties in all areas, including dissolution of marriage, paternity and maternity cases, jurisdictional disputes, custody, parenting plans, relocation, modification, enforcement, child support, post-judgment issues, and prenuptial and postnuptial agreements.
Kira is also frequently appointed by the court to serve as a Guardian ad Litem in family and domestic violence proceedings. She was privileged to serve in civil rights action brought in federal court by the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of an incarcerated transgender youth, and in a highly contested multi-jurisdictional custody dispute involving children with special needs.
Kira is proud to carry on her family’s eight-decade long tradition of teaching in Miami schools. She has been an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law since 2007, where she teaches Family Law and advanced family law workshops. She lectures on various legal topics throughout Florida and internationally, and has been quoted in the Miami Herald regarding family law.
While Kira trusts the family court to provide justice, her many years in practice have informed her strong belief that families are best served when they work towards reaching a resolution outside a courtroom. In furtherance of her commitment to litigation alternatives, Kira is a member of the Collaborative Family Law Institute, a Supreme Court of Florida Certified Family Mediator, and a Supreme Court of Florida Qualified Arbitrator.
Kira’s unique role as both a teacher and a practitioner of family law has given her the in-depth knowledge and qualifications to testify as an expert witness in circuit court, county court, and arbitration proceedings, and to serve as an expert for South African Hague Convention proceedings.
Kira is passionate about civil rights, social justice, and the Miami Hurricanes. She is the left-handed twin to her brother, Sander Galt, a Miami-based artist, furniture designer, and Vizcaya restorer, and lead singer and guitarist for Axe and the Oak. Her parents are Judy Blanchard, who taught English in Miami schools for forty-seven years before retiring, and Stu Willig, a retired Chief on the City of Miami Fire Department, S.W.A.T. team member, and head of South Florida’s Urban Search and Rescue Task Force.
Kira attended Barnard College of Columbia University on an academic scholarship and earned a degree in Women’s Studies. She returned to her native Miami to attend the University of Miami School of Law on a full academic scholarship, where she was an Associate Editor of the University of Miami Inter-American Law Review, took first place in the Moot Court Competition, and received honors and awards in Litigation Skills, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Family Law, Women and the Law, and Professional Responsibility. Kira served as a Dean’s Fellow in Civil Procedure, Executive Editor of the Amicus Curiae yearbook, President of the Family Law Society, Vice-President of Miami Law Women, Vice-Chair of Orientation, contributed to the newspaper Res Ipsa Loquitur, and was involved with the Center for Ethics & Public Service and the Spellman-Hoeveler American Inn of Court. As a research assistant, Kira assisted Professor Michael D. Graham with a new edition of the Handbook of Federal Evidence and Professor Anthony V. Alfieri and Professor Clark J. Freshman with articles appearing in multiple publications. Kira graduated magna cum laude and was named to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society that recognizes outstanding academic achievement in the study of the law.