Stephen F. Gehl

About Stephen F. Gehl

Stephen F. Gehl defends people facing criminal charges across the Region of Waterloo, working from Gehl & Gehl's office on Columbia Street West in Waterloo, where Stephen is a senior named partner. Cases run the full range, from impaired driving and other traffic charges through theft and property crime to serious charges like sexual assault and murder.

Mental health matters are part of that work, and not only at the client level. Stephen had a central hand in getting the Mental Health Court started at the Kitchener courthouse, and has since consulted with other jurisdictions that wanted to set up a court like it.

The road to practice started early. Osgoode Hall Law School at York University took Stephen in after just three years of a Bachelor of Arts, and an LL.B. followed. Since then Stephen's cases have gone to every level of court in Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada and the Ontario Court of Appeal included.

Sometimes it's the law itself that's on trial. In the first constitutional challenge to Christopher's Law, Ontario's sex offender registry, heard in Kitchener and reported in 2004, Stephen was the lawyer who brought the case, arguing the registry should hold only high-risk or violent offenders rather than everyone with a sex offence conviction. Colleagues in the local bar have honoured Stephen twice, in 2012 and again in 2023.