On December 22, 2020, senior partner, Eric V. Gottardi, Q.C., was appointed as Queen’s Counsel, the highest honour for a lawyer in British Columbia, in recognition of his skills as a barrister and for his significant contributions to the justice system.

Eric has practiced at Peck and Company for his entire legal career, after clerking at the Ontario Court of Appeal. His practice encompasses all aspects of criminal and quasi-criminal cases, including trials, appeals, extraditions, and special prosecutions. He has argued cases at all levels of Court in Canada. As an advocate, he has achieved exceptional results for his clients and inspired monumental changes to Canada’s laws, including the cases of R. v. Jordan, R. v. Nur and R. v. Sekhon at the Supreme Court of Canada. As an expert witness before Parliamentary committees, Eric’s insight has led to positive changes to criminal laws across Canada.

Eric’s contributions to the legal profession also extend to legal education. He was the chair of the CBA National Justice Section and acts as a founding co-chair for the National CBA Annual Criminal Law conference. He is a member of the Planning Committee for the Federation of Law Societies Criminal Law Program, in addition to being a member of faculty. As a member of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law, he received the Young Justice Award in 2014. Eric is the Editor of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms Newsletter for Thompson Reuters and often appears as a legal analyst for the CBC and other media outlets, as well as presenting at numerous conferences across Canada.

Peck and Company congratulates Eric on this well-deserved honour and for his continued positive influence on the legal profession in B.C. and Canada.

Peck and Company lawyers, Jeffrey Campbell (now Hon. Judge Campbell) and Garen Arnet-Zargarian, secured an acquittal for their client in a homicide case at the BC Supreme Court in New Westminster. Campbell and Arnet-Zargarian argued that their client was acting in self-defence when he was confronted by a larger man outside a pub in the Lower Mainland. After a two-week trial, the client was found not guilty on that basis.

Jeffrey T. Campbell, a partner at Peck and Company since 2010, was appointed to the Provincial Court bench in Port Coquitlam, effective March 23, 2020.

Judge Campbell practiced at Peck and Company since he was called to the B.C. Bar in 1999. For 21 years, he represented persons and companies in criminal or quasi-criminal matters and also acted as a special prosecutor in several cases. In that time, he became a fixture of the B.C. Criminal Bar, volunteering as a supervising lawyer with the UBC Criminal Clinic and the UBC Innocence Project and co-founding the Criminal Defence Advocacy Society, among numerous contributions. In 2015, he was appointed Queen’s Counsel and has been a Bencher of the Law Society since 2016. Throughout his career, Judge Campbell has been a mentor to numerous students and young lawyers, who have gone on to successful careers.

Judge Campbell’s calm demeanour and commitment to his clients, his colleagues, and the legal profession helped create a lasting culture of positivity and success which the firm maintains today. Peck and Company extends its profound gratitude to Judge Campbell for his immeasurable contributions to the firm for the past two decades and a heartfelt congratulations on the beginning of his judicial career.

For more information on Judge Campbell’s career and appointment, click here.

We are pleased to announce that Tony Paisana will be joining the Peck and Company partnership.

Over the past decade, Tony has acted as counsel on many high-profile cases at both the trial and appellate level.  He acted as co-counsel in R. v. Jordan at the Supreme Court of Canada, the leading case on unreasonable delay.  He has defended numerous serious criminal and quasi-criminal matters including murder trials, extraditions, regulatory charges, and professional discipline cases.  Outside of the courtroom, Tony has volunteered for various organizations including the Canadian Bar Association, the UBC Innocence Project, the Uniform Law Conference of Canada and the Friends of Tupper Fund.  He has testified as an expert witness before Parliament several times and is a founding member and director of the Criminal Defence Advocacy Society.

We are proud to welcome Tony in his new role at Peck and Company Barristers.

Charleston (SC) – Eric Gottardi has become a Fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers (ABCL), one of the premier legal associations in North America. The induction ceremony took place on October 12^th before an audience of more than 100 Fellows at the 2019 Annual General Meeting of the ABCL in Charleston, South Carolina.

A senior Partner at Peck and Company in Vancouver, BC, Eric joined the firm after clerking for the Ontario Court of Appeal. He appears in all levels of Court in British Columbia and has appeared in the Supreme Court of Canada numerous times. A  former Chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s national criminal section, Eric was named one of Canada’s most influential Lawyers in 2017 and is consistently retained in high profile criminal and extradition cases. He holds an LLB from Queen’s University and a BA from the University of British Columbia (with distinction).

About ABCL

Founded in 1978 by San Francisco attorney Nathan Cohn, the Board is composed of the best of the trial bar from the United States of America. Fellowship in the College is extended by invitation only and only after careful investigation, to those experienced trial lawyers of diverse backgrounds, who have mastered the art of advocacy and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility and collegiality. Lawyers must have a minimum of 15 years trial experience before they can be considered for Fellowship. Eric is one of only two Canadian lawyers with Fellowship in the ABCL.

The primary concern of the ABCL is the preservation and the free exercise of fundamental freedoms for all those accused of criminal conduct. Over the years, ABCL Fellows have become regularly involved in high profile criminal cases throughout the country, where the principles of the Organization and the collective experience of the Fellows have made a worthwhile contribution.