The attorney defending Waltham Police Chief Thomas LaCroix is no stranger to representing police officers or high-profile clients.

Thomas Drechsler, a partner of Boston-based law firm Byrne & Drechsler, has a long and experienced history of defending high profile clients and police officers, according to a review of publicly available information.

Drecshler's Past/Current Clients and Cases

• Drechsler is currently defending a Salem Police lieutenant accused of rape.
• Drechsler represented Ricahrd Vitale, one of the co-defedeants in the case of convicted former State House speak Sal DiMasi., according to Boston.com.
• Drechsler defended the Springfield gun club at which a young boy accidentally died when he shot himself with an Uzi machine, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
• Drechsler's firm's website lists many police associations as clients, including the Boston Patrolman's Association, the Medford Police Patrolman's Association and the Massachusetts Coalition of Police among others.

Drechsler's Resume (source: Byrne & Drechsler website)

• Drechsler served as a law clerk to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1979-1983
• From 1983 to 1985, Drechsler was an assistant district attorney with the Essex County District Attorney's office.
• Drechsler gradauted from Boston College Law School in 1978 where he was a member of the Law Review. He received cum laude honors.

Drechsler has no prior discipline on his attorney's record, according to the Massachusetts Bar of Board Overseers of the Supreme Judicical Court website.