Breese Davies received her B.A., M.A. (Criminology) and LL.B. degrees from the University of Toronto. She practices criminal, constitutional and administrative law at both the trial and appellate levels. She started her legal career as an associate with Ruby & Edwardh and was a partner at Di Luca Copeland Davies LLP for 4 years. Breese now has her own firm in Toronto and she practices in association with Cavalluzzo Shilton McIntyre Cornish LLP. Breese also prosecutes for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.
Breese is the recipient of the 2017 Laura Legge Award presented by the Law Society of Upper Canada to a female lawyer who exemplifies leadership in the profession.
Breese has been involved in counsel in a number of constitutional cases. She was involved in two of the constitutional challenges to the definition of terrorist act in s. 83.01 of the Criminal Code (United States v. Nadarajah, 2012 SCC 70 and R. v. Ahmad, [2009] O.J. No. 6151) as well as the challenge to the regime for adjudicating national security privilege in s. 38 of the Canada Evidence Act (R. v. Ahmad, 2011 SCC 6). Breese has also intervened in a number of constitutional cases, most recently for the Criminal Lawyers’s Association in Trinity Western University v. Law Society of Upper Canada and Harkat v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration).
Breese was involved in the Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in relation to Maher Arar, the Internal Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in relation to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin and the Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario. She was counsel for the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies at the Inquest into the Death of Ashley Smith.
Breese is a Vice President of the Criminal Lawyers Association. She is an adjunct professor of Criminology at the University of Toronto and at Osgoode Hall Law School. Breese is the former editor of For the Defence magazine published by the Criminal Lawyers Association. Breese has also done volunteer legal work in Nigeria through Avocats sans frontiers Canada. Breese is a member of the Board of Regents at Victoria University, University of Toronto.
