“Together, we represent over a century of courtroom experience.”

Our team of lawyers are dedicated to the aggressive defence of all our clients, whatever the criminal charge.

Being accused of a crime can be a life-changing and highly stressful experience. We understand this, and strive to provide clients with clear and practical guidance throughout the process. Together with each client we develop a plan to achieve the best possible outcome. This is our commitment to you.

Our lawyers bring to this commitment a shared tradition of extensive experience in courtroom litigation combined with a strong belief in every person's right to a vigorous and effective defence. Criminal lawyers are a unique breed within the legal profession. Every day they enter hostile courtroom environments to fearlessly and confidently defend their clients, however unpopular that cause might be. We believe that our firm has attracted some of the very best. Together we represent over 100 hundred years of courtroom experience.

Our lawyers are actively involved within the legal community. We take pride in our commitment to organizations devoted to the proper administration of justice in Canada. We are members of the Canadian Criminal Defence Lawyers Association, Criminal Trial Lawyers Association and International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association. Two of our partners have been admitted as Fellows of the American College of Trial Attorneys.

Our lawyers also have a long history of serving as directors, officers and committee members for the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association of Alberta. All members of the firm currently serve as criminal law advisors to Student Legal Services of Edmonton, a student run organization, at the University of Alberta Law School that assists indigent individuals in their involvement with the criminal justice system. Our lawyers have, or are currently acting as criminal law instructors to law students attending the University of Alberta Law School and Alberta Bar Admission course, as well as presenting papers and lectures to colleagues on behalf of the the Legal Education Society of Alberta. In 2010 the firm won the Award for the most outstanding contribution by a Canadian law firm to the provision of free legal services.

To maintain a high level of professional competence our firm encourages and supports our lawyers' ongoing attendance at conferences and seminars at which the latest developments in criminal law are analyzed. Our lawyers are further supported in the development of their legal knowledge and service to our clients by the firm's extensive criminal law library and sophisticated on-line computerized research systems.

Dawson Stevens Duckett & Shaigec also publishes The Update, a weekly newsletter that summarizes the most signficant and recent criminal case decisions from all levels of court in Alberta. The Update is provided weekly to subscribers that include lawyers, judges and law libraries across the province. The firm provides public access to The Update through its main website at www.dsscrimlaw.com . The firm also publishes a website at www.impaireddrivinghelp.com which provides specific information for persons charged with impaired driving in Alberta, together with a developing database of impaired driving case summaries that provides the public and the legal profession with a current sampling of trends in this law.

Referrals or appointments can be arranged by calling the main Edmonton office at:

(780) 424-9058
1 (800) 661-3176