Robert F. Goddard

About Robert F. Goddard

Robert F. Goddard, Barrister & Solicitor is a solo criminal law practice based in Kingston, Ontario. Goddard's connection to prison law goes back further than the practice itself: as a second-year law student, Goddard assisted at a parole hearing at Kingston Penitentiary in 1988, two years before graduating from Queen's University's Faculty of Law in 1990. After being called to the Ontario bar in 1992, Goddard opened a criminal defence practice in Toronto, then returned to Kingston in 1994 to join Queen's University's Correctional Law Project.

For the next two decades, Goddard taught correctional law at Queen's University's Faculty of Law and supervised law students at the Queen's Prison Law Clinic, which pairs law students with penitentiary inmates who need legal help. Returning to private practice in 2015, Goddard also began representing clients before the Ontario Consent and Capacity Board and has since argued more than 50 cases before the Court of Appeal, along with hundreds of parole hearings. The practice has now narrowed to focus on parole hearings, Ontario Review Board hearings, and Consent and Capacity Board matters.