David Butcher, KC

About David

David Butcher, KC began his career as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice in 1985. He practiced both criminal and civil litigation at a regional firm between 1989 and 2003 and then became one of the founders of what became Wilson Butcher. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2010 and joined Martland & Saulnier as Associate Counsel in 2025. He is a senior barrister with a broad practice covering all aspects of the criminal justice system and has appeared in courts across British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Nunavut, and the Yukon, as well as the Supreme Court of Canada. His notable cases include R. v. Stone, the leading Canadian case on automatism, and R. v. Lavallee, Rackel and Heintz, in which the Supreme Court struck down the law-office search provisions of the Criminal Code. He is a Special Prosecutor appointed by the Attorney General of British Columbia and has taught Advanced Advocacy at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law for more than two decades. His current practice includes defending claims against police agencies and officers, industrial accident and workplace death cases, professional misconduct allegations, and white collar crimes such as fraud and tax evasion.