Peter Walter Samuel Copeland

Peter maintains a trial and appellate practice in criminal law and related matters. He regularly appears before every level of court in Ontario and has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada. Peter has a particular interest in cases involving complex legal issues or expert scientific or technical evidence in areas including accident reconstruction, medical causation, and computer forensics.

In addition to his criminal law practice, Peter represents lawyers and paralegals in relation to complaints and discipline matters before the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Peter is a member of Legal Aid Ontario's Complex Case and Extremely Serious Matters panels. He accepts legal aid in relation to serious cases at the trial and appellate level. As a member of the Pro Bono Inmate Appeal Program , he appears before the Court of Appeal for Ontario and argues appeals on behalf of unrepresented indigent individuals.

Peter has lectured and presented papers at continuing legal education programs and conferences held by various organizations including the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, Osgoode Professional Development, the Advocates’ Society, the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Ontario Bar Association.

(Please note that Peter is not the like-named author of opinion pieces in the National Post and he has no association with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.)

Supreme Court of Canada upholds order for a new trial on first-degree murder due to trial judge’s failure to instruct the jury on alternative routes to liability for lesser included offences: R. v. Pan , 2025 SCC 12 .