Shore Johnston Hyslop Day LLP

About Shore Johnston Hyslop Day LLP

Clients rate this firm highly on Google.

Shore & Johnston, whose legal name is Shore Johnston Hyslop Day LLP, is a criminal defence firm at 141 Laurier Avenue West in downtown Ottawa. It's practiced criminal law for about fifty years, taking cases from the police investigation stage through bail, trial, and appeal under the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The firm reorganized under its current name after practicing for years as Shore Davis Johnston. Beyond Ottawa, it serves clients across Eastern Ontario, including Cornwall, Kingston, Pembroke, Perth, Brockville, and Smiths Falls, and across the river in Gatineau, Quebec.

Leonard Shore, appointed Queen's Counsel in 1980, practiced criminal law for almost sixty years before retiring in January 2026 and staying on with the firm as a consultant. Shore was a founding member and the first president of the Defence Counsel Association of Ottawa in 1974, later appeared before the Gomery and Arar inquiries, and was named among Canada's first federal Special Advocates under the country's anti-terrorism legislation. Michael A. Johnston, who now leads the practice, is a Law Society of Ontario Certified Specialist in Criminal Law, articled with Greenspan Humphrey Levine in Toronto, has represented the Defence Counsel Association of Ottawa as an intervener at the Supreme Court of Canada, and is fluent in Spanish and conversant in French.