OUR LAWYERS
Excellence and Experience in all areas of Criminal Law
Facing a criminal charge can potentially be the one of the most stressful experiences of your life. It is important you retain the services of a professional lawyer who has years of practice and insight behind them. Banks Gubbins Andrews Law Offices has a team of experienced lawyers in Grande Prairie who are ready to defend your rights and represent your interests in all aspects of a criminal proceeding.
The lawyers at Banks Gubbins Andrews Law Offices have over 50 cumulative years of experience in the practice of Criminal Law, and have extensive experience in the defence of a wide variety of areas of Criminal offences. You can rest assured that we have made our living aggressively defending our client's cases and working in their best interests at every step of the way.
Please take an opportunity to review more information regarding each of the lawyers at Banks Gubbins Andrews Law Offices. Please contact us at your convenience to setup a meeting with whichever lawyer you would like to meet with the discuss your particular circumstances.
CHRISTIAN BANKS
B.A., LL.B. (Honours)
Lawyer **
Christian Banks is a lifelong resident of Alberta and 2018 marks his twentieth year as a barrister and solicitor. After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, he attended the University of Ottawa Law School, graduating with honours in 1997. From there he articled and went on to practice at a criminal defence firm in Edmonton.
In 2000, he began practicing more heavily in the South Peace Region with an office in Grande Prairie. In 2007 he went out on his own, still practicing criminal and quasi-criminal defence work exclusively, maintaining a strong presence in the Grande Prairie area, including Dawson Creek and Fort St. John, British Columbia.
In 2009, Christian moved himself and his law practice to Grande Prairie, where he continues to service the area, while maintaining a presence across Alberta.
From law school on, his focus has remained on criminal practice and procedure, and defence of individual rights in the face of government intrusion on those rights. He has handled cases all over Alberta and British Columbia exclusively defending people charged with criminal, traffic and other provincial offences. He has handled matters on the whole range of the criminal spectrum, from shoplifting to murder.
Currently, the majority of Christian’s practice focuses on defending people charged with sexual offences. Both young people and adults alike are being charged with sexual assault, sexual interference, sexual touching and sexual exploitation at an alarming rate. Christian has had excellent success defending people charged with these types of offences, due in large part to the sheer number of trials he has run and the level of preparedness and diligence he brings to every case, whether they be in front of a judge alone or with a jury.
Christian is also an active volunteer in the legal community. He is currently a member of the Law Society of Alberta’s Mentorship program, giving advice to newly minted lawyers in need of guidance in their practice. He gives pro bono legal advice in Grande Prairie to those charged with criminal offences who cannot afford a lawyer and are not eligible for funding through Legal Aid, through the Grande Prairie Legal Guidance office. He is also a member-at-large of Legal Aid Alberta’s Appeals panel, which hears appeals of those in need of legal advice who have been initially denied lawyer funding by Legal Aid Alberta.”
KEVIN GUBBINS
B.A., LL.B
Lawyer **
Kevin Gubbins graduated from the University of Alberta in 1995 with a law degree and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. After graduation, Mr. Gubbins worked with the Provincial Government, specifically playing a key role in coordinating a massive class action lawsuit on behalf of mentally challenged individuals suing the Government over the Alberta government policy of sterilizing mentally challenged individuals in government institutions.
Subsequent to this, Mr. Gubbins worked in the People’s Republic of China in a managerial role for an international marketing firm as well as an agricultural development corporation. Upon his return to Canada, Mr. Gubbins was admitted to the practice of law in 2001 in Alberta. Since that time, his practice has remained exclusively that of criminal defence work.
While practicing in a variety of criminal defence areas, his primary focus is defending drug-related matters. In 2009, Mr. Gubbins relocated to Grande Prairie and is now currently serving the Peace Country including Northwest Alberta and Northeastern British Columbia.
JEREMY ANDREWS
B.Comm (Honours), M.B.A, LL.B.
Lawyer **
Jeremy Andrews was born and raised in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Masters of Business Administration in 2005. In 2008 he obtained his law degree from Dalhousie University. Since 2008 he has almost exclusively been practicing in the area of Criminal Law. In 2012 Jeremy moved to and settled in Grande Prairie.
During the first part of his of his career in Criminal Law Jeremy worked as a Crown Prosecutor with both the Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador governments. In 2014 Jeremy left his work in prosecution and applied his knowledge, experience, skills and professional connections to the practice of defending individuals charged with criminal offences; work he passionately continues to this day.
Jeremy has extensive experience regarding all aspects of the criminal justice system including advice pre-charge, conducting bail hearings, negotiating with the Crown prior to trial in docket court, and completing all forms of evidentiary matters including preliminary inquiries, Charter breach hearings, trials and sentencings.
Jeremy accepts clients with all manner of charges and has successfully defended clients charged with a variety of offences including, but not limited to:
-driving offences (such as dangerous driving, impaired driving, hit and run)
- drug offences (such as trafficking and possession for the purpose of trafficking)
-violent offences (such as all levels of assault, manslaughter and first and second degree murder)
- sexual offences (such as sexual assault, sexual interference)
- property offences (such as frauds, thefts and break and enters)
Jeremy has extensive experience dealing with all these types of charges and more. Throughout each step of the criminal process Jeremy consistently has the best interests of his clients in mind and does everything he can to obtain the best results for his clients in their specific circumstances.
ORIN TOMLINSON
B.A., LL.B.
Lawyer
Orin Tomlinson grew up in Morinville, just north of Edmonton. He attended the University of Alberta graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 2013. He returned to the University of Alberta to attend law school, graduating in 2018.
Articling with Legal Aid Alberta in Edmonton, Orin did a variety of criminal law work, gaining valuable hands on experience as duty counsel. He worked on both youth and adult criminal defence files, as well as duty counsel in Edmonton’s Mental Health Court.
In 2019 Orin relocated to Grande Prairie doing exclusively criminal defence work.
** denotes operation as a Professional Corporation