I graduated in 1993 from the University of Toronto, with High Distinction in International Relations (major) and Political Theory (minor). I went on to attend Osgoode Hall Law School where I began defending criminal and quasi-criminal cases in the provincial courts through the student legal clinic before completing first year.

My Articles of Clerkship were served in 1996-97 at the Crown Law Office – Criminal. There I was involved in trials and appeals, including several matters before the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada. Formally called to the Bar in 1998, now under the aegis of the Graham Clark Professional Corporation, I have been practising as a criminal defence lawyer ever since.

I was fortunate to serve my Articles of Clerkship working under those crown lawyers who argue the most complex and important criminal cases before the highest courts, many themselves having gone on to be appointed as judges. After articles, I naturally gravitated back to defence work and experienced the further good fortune of being hired onto the “Maple Leaf Gardens case” in 1998 as junior counsel on a defence team that included senior defence counsel of the very highest calibre. Some of the defence counsel I got to work with in my first years of practice have also gone on to the bench, some are now pretty well household names among the reasonably well informed, and others have managed to keep a low profile while nonetheless being some of the best lawyers in Canada.