Course Chair
Kevin B. Westell — Pender Litigation, Vancouver
About the Course Chair
Kevin Westell is a founding partner at Pender Litigation. He earned his law degree at the Robson Hall School of Law at the University of Manitoba before being called to the bar in BC in 2009.
Kevin routinely defends accused persons before all levels of court in BC and has acted as trial counsel in Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario. He is retained from time to time to prosecute cases on behalf of the Attorney General of BC in courts across the lower mainland and before the Mental Health Review Board. Mr. Westell has also been called upon to act as amicus curiae before the Supreme Court of BC and the BC Court of Appeal.
Kevin has presented at many continuing legal education conferences including the CBA National Criminal Law Conference, the CLEBC Winning Trial Advocacy Workshop, the Osgoode Hall Intensive Trial Advocacy Workshop (ITAW), as well as various other programs put on by the Advocate's Society and CLEBC.
He currently serves as president of the Advocate's Club and as a member of the Executive Committee of the CBA National Criminal Justice Section, the Advocates' Society's BC Advisory Committee, and the TLABC Criminal Law Committee. He has previously served as Chair of the CBA Vancouver Criminal Justice Subsection.
Faculty
Peter A. Juk, QC — Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Ministry of Attorney General, Vancouver
Lesley A. Ruzicka — Crown Counsel, Criminal Appeals and Special Prosecutions (Prosecution Support), BC Prosecution Service, Ministry of Attorney General, Victoria
About the Faculty
Peter Juk, QC is the Assistant Deputy Attorney General, in charge of the BC Prosecution Service. He first joined the Crown in 1992, after clerking at the BC Court of Appeal and articling at Bolton & Muldoon. After two years with the Crown, Peter went into private practice, first at Arvay Finlay then at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, where he became a partner in 2000. Peter returned to the Crown in 2005, to conduct major crime prosecutions. In 2011, he was appointed the Regional Crown Counsel in charge of Vancouver Island. In 2013, he became the Director of Appeals and Special Prosecutions for the Province of BC, a position he held until his appointment as Assistant Deputy Attorney General in October 2016.
Peter was appointed Queen's Counsel in November 2010.
Lesley Ruzicka is a Crown Counsel with the Crown Law Division (Prosecution Support Unit) in Victoria. Lesley received her LLB from the University of Victoria in 1998. After clerking for the BC Supreme Court, Lesley articled and worked as an associate at Guild, Yule & Company in Vancouver, before joining the Crown in 2001. She worked as a trial prosecutor at 222 Main Street, in Duncan and Victoria before joining the Prosecution Support Unit in 2007. The PSU coordinates constitutional litigation on behalf of the Criminal Justice Branch. With a team of other prosecutors, Lesley provides litigation support to prosecutors facing Charter challenges in their cases. In addition, Lesley co-counsels with trial prosecutors to take conduct of constitutional applications (primarily challenges to legislation). She also acts as a resource counsel for Crown on media-related applications and has conduct of conviction and sentence appeals in the Court of Appeal. Lesley is a frequent contributor to professional development activities both within and outside the Criminal Justice Branch, has authored a number of papers, is a member of the Victoria CBA Criminal Justice Subsection Executive, and is a contributing author to The Working Manual of Criminal Law.