Meet Jillian Williamson
Jillian Williamson is a Calgary criminal defence lawyer with more than a decade of courtroom experience and over 3,000 court days behind her. A partner at Wyman & Williamson, she defends people charged with the most serious offences in the Criminal Code — sexual assault, violent crime, drug offences — along with complex regulatory and quasi-criminal matters.
Her legal career began at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law, where she earned her Juris Doctor in 2012. She was called to the Alberta bar in 2013 and articled with the Provincial Court of Alberta, researching and drafting legal opinions that judges relied on in preparing their decisions. That early view of how judges actually reason through a case shaped the way she builds a defence today.
Jillian is in a courtroom almost every day she works. She has represented thousands of clients in contested proceedings — bail hearings, trials, and sentencing hearings — at every level of court in Alberta, as well as in Saskatchewan and British Columbia. She has argued before the Alberta Court of Appeal, including R v Wesslen, 2015 ABCA 74, a sentencing decision that courts across Canada continue to rely on more than a decade later.
The serious end of the docket is where she spends most of her time. Jillian has extensive experience in sexual assault litigation, an area where the evidentiary rules are unforgiving and a misstep can cost a defence before trial ever begins. She currently has two attempted murder files before the court and has acted as second counsel on several homicide prosecutions.
Clients consistently describe the same thing: she listens first. Jillian takes the time to understand what happened from her client's perspective before working through the police disclosure line by line — the investigation, the statements, the timeline — looking for the strategic advantage that moves the case. Clients are updated at every step and told why each step is being taken. Questions are invited, not billed.
Jillian is a published author in the Canadian Criminal Law Review and writes regularly on developing criminal law issues, including for LegalReader. She is a member of the Calgary Bar Association, the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association, the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, and the Criminal Lawyers Association.
Outside her practice, she volunteers with Student Legal Assistance and takes on pro bono clients, a commitment she and her partner James Wyman maintain despite full trial schedules and young families. Access to a defence, in her view, should not depend on what someone can pay.
For anyone facing criminal charges in Calgary or across Alberta, Jillian offers a free consultation of roughly an hour: a walk through the situation, the legal protections available right now, how the court process actually unfolds, and a realistic fee range. Wyman & Williamson bills on a flat/block fee basis with payment plans, so a client is never charged per phone call or email.