Paquette Wilhelm Criminal Lawyers

About Paquette Wilhelm Criminal Lawyers

Paquette Wilhelm Criminal Lawyers is a Hamilton, Ontario firm that practises exclusively in criminal defence. Its two lawyers, Dean D. Paquette and Lauren M. Wilhelm, bring more than 60 years of combined experience to cases that range from minor charges to serious indictable offences. The firm represents clients from the first police contact through trial and, where needed, appeal, and its lawyers appear at every level of court in Ontario, including the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada. Its caseload covers drug offences, impaired driving, bail hearings, domestic violence, weapons charges, sexual offences, fraud, and youth crime.

Paquette was called to the Ontario bar in 1976, after articling with the Ministry of the Attorney General's Criminal Appeals and Special Prosecutions Branch. Paquette then served as an Assistant Crown Attorney and later as Crown Attorney in Hamilton, followed by a posting as Assistant Deputy Minister for the Ministry of the Solicitor General, before moving into private criminal defence practice in 1988. Wilhelm joined the practice in the fall of 2012, after clerking for judges of the Superior Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal for Ontario, and was called to the bar in 2011. Both lawyers hold leadership roles within Hamilton's criminal defence bar and focus their practice solely on criminal law.