Québec

A new entry into Benchmark Canada in this edition (and, with only 25 years of history a relatively young firm), BCF Business Law has made inroads in the Québec market via its offices in Montréal, its larger office, as well as Québec City. A full-service business firm, its litigation practice is considered an “umbrella” group, divided into several relatively independent teams and decidedly focused primarily on mid-market and more entrepreneurial clients. “They are known for taking entities from the basement to the IPO,” states a peer. On a more recognizable level, the firm acted on behalf of Hydro-Québec and Société d’énergie de la Baie-James in a $33 million claim by a general contractor for various claim posts including, but not limited to, different geological conditions, additional requests, unforeseen works and additional equipment maintenance. (The case was closed when the Supreme Court denied hearing it in December 2020.) Montréal-based Andre Ryan chairs the litigation umbrella group and maintains his own practice that blends class action and arbitration work. “Andre has been around the block forever and he’s very talented. He’s a recent (2017) ACTL member,” testifies a peer. Ryan acted on behalf of a former executive officer of a publicly traded pharmaceutical corporation in connection with statutory and civil securities actions brought against him by individual shareholders and major institutional investors following a drop in share price and the issuance of corrective disclosures by the defendant company. Statutory and civil actions have also emerged as opt-out claims following the authorization (certification) of a class action that raises substantially similar claims. Ryan is also acting on behalf of a Canadian natural resources company in an arbitration proceeding instituted pursuant to NAFTA, whose foraging licenses were revoked without compensation by the Government of Québec. The arbitration proceedings are ongoing, with supplemental written and oral submissions scheduled for 2021.

Montréal boutique Belleau Lapointe has seen a rising profile of late, with a growing chorus of peers weighing in on its behalf. “They act in the plaintiff capacity often, particularly on class actions,” voices one defense-oriented peer, “so you would think we'd view them as an irritant but no, they are one of the good ones. They don't try to play stupid tricks, they are very strategic and selective.” Clients concur; “The firm is dedicated to the consumer's point of view and defending their rights. They have great expertise both in consumer rights and class action suits.”

Name partner Daniel Belleau, a noted class action authority, has been cheered by peers all over Canada. One in particular, located well outside of Quebec, simply addresses him as "the best." "This guy just has unquestionable sincerity. Even defense counsel, while maintaining an adversarial stance to him, find it difficult to counter some of his arguments because is so persuasively sincere. I love watching him at work." Another class action specialist Maxime Nasr is also viewed as "very strong, with a big brain, bright and quick." Nasr represented Option Consommateurs, a leading Québec consumer advocate, in the class action against Volkswagen that settled for more than $2.5 billion. He also represented this client in a class action against Leon's Furniture that resulted in landmark decision on the merits that establishes for the first time that attorney-client fees can be claimed on top of damages in application of section 36 of the Competition Act. Nasr represented this client once again in an antitrust class action matter concerning foam, a matter that settled for over $38 million. Nasr is also leading a securities litigation against embattled Canadian pharmaceutical entity Valeant.

Anne Merminod, a quickly emerging star in the class-action space, acted with Stephane Pitre in a novel privacy-related class action in which the plaintiff, an inspector working for the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, left his laptop on a train. The laptop contained certain personal information relating to individuals collected from securities brokers who were under inspection. Arguably the most prominent figure in Montréal, Mathieu Piché-Messier attends to a practice that balances commercial work with specialty cases of a more novel nature, especially where there is a media or celebrity element involved. Piché-Messier, has been counsel for Devas, a Mauritius-based entity and the plaintiff in a novel cross-border dispute stemming from arbitral award against the Republic of India, which the Republic had failed to satisfy. Devas has brought seizure applications in Québéc against several entities, including the Republic itself as well as its sovereign-owned airline, the Airport Authority of India, International Air Transport Association (based in Montréal.) Since their initial representation of Devas in 2021, the BLG team has seized before judgment USD $55 million in Indian assets from the four entities. The Montréal office also boasts firepower in its celebrated construction practice, with Gabriel Lefebvre and the aforementioned Pitre being noted as standouts. A peer in the insurance capacity also notes, “BLG for sure has a few major players on the insurance side. I particularly like Gilbert Houreni, who came from Robinson Sheppard and has been quite aggressive and has developed a following.”

A Montréal plaintiff class-action shop, Consumer Law Group is largely the vehicle of Jeff Orenstein, a prolific class-action filer. “Jeff is definitely popping up in the mix, filing a lot of class actions and getting better and better at them,” claims one peer. Another notes, “Jeff takes complicated cases and is a reasonable guy. I had him in a few pharma cases, and I noticed he has become a lot more focused and pretty impressive.” Clients are equally impressed. One testifies, “All the cases that Jeff handled were successful. He was an excellent pleader in front of a judge. [He has] Good reaction time and is quick on his feet. He was an outstanding negotiator.” Orenstein has taken a role in an astonishingly prolific number of cases. Just a sample of several includes his position as one of the lead lawyers in the class action representing victims from the town that was destroyed by the oil spill and explosion, which killed 47 people. Through the bankruptcy court, the case was settled with almost all of the defendants for a global settlement amount of $460 million. Orenstein is also the lead lawyer in a class action against Amazon for sales tax charged on basic groceries, where there should be no sales tax charged (though it was for approximately seven years). Amazon has challenged the court’s jurisdiction and Orenstein recently won on this issue in the Court of Appeal. An appeal by Amazon has been filed with the Supreme Court of Canada. Orenstein is also lead counsel in a class action instituted in Québec against Ford for its miscalculation and misrepresentation of certain road-testing factors during vehicle certification testing and its use of a “Mileage Cheat Device” to misrepresent and conceal the true kilometrage of certain Ford vehicles and the vehicle emissions.

The Montréal office of international conglomerate Dentons is engaged in several high-stakes disputes touching on elements of construction and infrastructure, class actions and franchise law. The latter of these practices is principally the domain of Margaret Weltrowska, a key member of this office’s litigation team and someone who also handles consumer class actions, privacy class actions and competition work. Weltrowska represents Amazon in the context of a class action seeking the recovery of sales tax charged and remitted to the relevant tax authorities by Amazon on goods purchased by Québec consumers that were allegedly not taxable, as well as the award of punitive damages under the Québec Consumer Protection Act. Weltrowska also defended UPS in a file in which a former client claimed $2.4 million from UPS, representing the anti-dumping and countervailing duties the former client paid to the Canada Border Services Agency following the issuance of 30 detailed adjustment statements for aluminum columns and rails imported from China. The former client alleged that UPS committed faults in providing erroneous custom broker advice and analysis on antidumping duties that misled the former client, which UPS strongly denied. Further to a week-long trial, the Superior Court dismissed the claim, with costs. Over the summer of 2020, this office also welcomed the arrival of Emil Vidracsu, formerly a star with Lavery. “Emil is a brilliant lawyer,” raves a peer. “He is very strong and brings a lot of construction litigation experience. He also has very strong Aboriginal law experience, representing Hydro Québec in several Aboriginal engagements. [There are] Billions of dollars at issue, [these are] huge files.”

Montreal’s Kugler Kandestin is noted specifically for its active plaintiff capacity. “They do a mixed bag of plaintiff work on the bodily injury side, with some leading plaintiff class action cases. They also do a lot of residential school cases,” offers one defense-side peer. Another asserts, “For plaintiffs work, they know how to win a case, push it forward and get damages. People will tell you, if you get a demand letter from them, watch out.” Brothers Robert Kugler and Stuart Kugler are observed by peers as being “quite good – they are the sons of the founder and getting some more traction but they are still too much under the radar.” Managing partner Arthur Weschler is called “a very dynamic guy and an excellent lawyer,” with one opponent noting, “I have a big case against Arthur, he is not only good, but he’s also fun to deal with. David Stolow, a prominent partner who was previously with business law powerhouse Davies Ward, leads a proposed class action relating to the massive and unprecedented data breach that Desjardins publicly reported in June 2019. It is reported that the personal data of over four million people, including corporations– comprising names, addresses, birth dates, social insurance numbers, email addresses, and information about their transaction habits – was improperly and unlawfully accessed by a former Desjardins employee and disclosed to third parties. The proposed class action, which includes all Desjardins members whose personal data was breached, alleges that Desjardins did not have a sufficient system or adequate measures in place to adequately protect its members’ personal and highly sensitive information and claims significant compensatory and punitive damages.

The Montréal office of McMillan has been building a steadily ascending profile as of late. “They merged with Lang Michener in 2009 and ever since then have come a long way in class actions, competition and product liability, with some of the product liability work being individual and class action work,” confirms a peer. “They have been involved in competition work before it was ‘trendy.’ They also are involved in aviation. They get some of the best of the best in eastern Canada.” The latter practices are largely attributed to Éric Vallières, who lays claim to securing a rare denial of certification in a class action for Capital One. Sidney Elbaz, another class actions specialist, is also not wanting for acclaim. “Sidney did a great job on a class action for Netflix,” raves a peer. “He led a resistance of certification and then won the appeal.”

Celebrating seven years in business as of March 2022, Renno Vathilakis is another Montréal litigation boutique but one that follows a decidedly unconventional model. “This is not the cookie-cutter type of firm doing the routine, boring work,” notes a peer. “These guys take on whatever they want.” “Whatever they want” includes a vibrant mix of high-risk/high-reward litigation cases that range from class actions (often in the plaintiff capacity) to contentious family law cases for high-net-worth individuals. Karim Renno, a “maverick” trial lawyer who held posts at Stikeman Elliott and IMK before forging this firm, is called “very good at getting out there and getting his name around town,” by a peer. Renno’s assertive promotion is supported by his aggression in the courtroom. A peer concedes, “If you’re looking to ‘do the dance,’ you’re going to hate going against him because you’re going to get hurt. If you try to dance around him, he will sink his teeth into your legs. You literally can’t go on autopilot for a minute – Karim will always be watching you and waiting for an opening to exploit a weakness.” Renno was lead counsel representing Corporatek in a major securities case in which the opposing party is alleged to have participated in a massive Ponzi scheme and committed fraud. He was also lead counsel for Eurobank in an appeal in a $10 million case against Bombardier regarding the enforcement of international letters of credit. Michael Vathilakis also walks his own line, with a practice that combines class actions, arbitration work (including international work) and a steady stream of contentious divorce work for high-net-worth individuals requiring an independent advocate. The novel nature of Vathilakis’ practice has put him at the forefront of some cutting-edge issues; in addition to quintessential family law issues such as custody, spousal support, child support, patrimony, applicable matrimonial regime etc., the vast majority of his family law files have also entailed corporate/commercial issues. Vathilakis had the opportunity to work on a same-sex divorce between two power clients within the real estate industry. In the class actions capacity, Vathilakis has been advancing existing files and, most recently, filed the motion for bringing a class action against TD Waterhouse with respect to allegations that the bank illicitly limited trading on their platform certain securities including GameStop, Nokia and AMC amongst others. Vathilakis has drawn vocal support from some fiercely loyal clients; one testifies, “I appreciated the initial contact whereby he granted me, as he always does to new clients, a one-hour initial session free of charge, where both of us would be able to assess if our eventual relationship would be positive and hold firm. I consider this policy to be a very noble gesture on his part; I have not heard of this with other law firms in Montréal.” Speaking to Vathilakis’s approach, this client insists, “Michael sees clearly the overall picture, with a cool head, including the chances for an eventual settlement or court action, which counteracts, for the better, the shorter views of his clients, and those of opposing counsel. His sincerity is unquestionable. He has many times told me ‘Let me be upfront with you,’ which means that he has at heart the best interest of his client and the case at hand, above any personal bias for a given course of action. I feel very confident that he will do his utmost to bring about the best possible outcome, for any given case. His unbiased attitude scores very high in my book, as we have so often heard of friends complaining of expensive legal fees for little advancement in their case. This is not the case with Michael or his firm. By the way, his fees are very reasonable and comparable to other firms.” A client the divorce capacity extols, “From the moment I hired Michael, I knew I had the upper hand in what turned out to be the divorce from hell. As emotional as a divorce could be, Michael was always by my side to calm things down and to flip things over to help me see the more intelligent way of moving forward in our case in order to get the outcome we aspired for.” A third client sums up, “Montréal street smarts with Harvard pedigree. Michael is someone you want on your team in any complex litigation file.” A peer also weighs in on Vathilakis’s behalf: “Over the course of the past five years or so, I have had the opportunity to work on several cross-border pieces of commercial litigation with Michael; all with huge stakes on the line. Michael is exactly the lawyer whom you want in those moments. He is calm, rational, vested and practical. He articulates the arguments in a succinct and clear manner. He takes the time to understand everything about the issue and approaches the file with a no-nonsense demeanor. If I was in need of representation - with everything on the line - Michael would be my first choice.”

Montréal boutique Woods is revered not only as one of the strongest boutiques in the city but one of the strongest litigation groups of any firm in Québec. Perhaps even more impressive is how the firm has etched itself this position while remaining the most unanimously revered in terms of collegiality as well. “Of course, we see Woods all the time,” states one peer, “but they are really more friends than competitors.” A client declares, “Woods is the firm to go to for the cases that tend to go the distance and don’t settle.” One client that has been observed to increasingly call on Woods’s service is Quebecor. “They have become the Quebecor firm of choice – the level of work they get from them is insane! Woods has always done a lot of telecom work but this past year, wow…” With an enviable degree of bench strength – with a healthy percentage of its staff ranked as litigation stars – Woods has also demonstrated its ability to reinvent and reinvigorate itself, with many of its stars “at the younger end, only in their forties.”
     Few would dispute that the firm’s center of gravity is Patrick Ouellet, an all-purpose trial lawyer revered by seemingly the entirety of the Montréal bar. Ouellet also successfully represented a defendant against Canada Life Assurance Company, which claimed that a group of defendants, including the client, made false representations to induce it to participate in an overly complex credit insurance plan reinsured by a captive insurance in Barbados. More recently, Ouellet led Air India to a victory in a landmark concerning an attempt by a company that was unsuccessful in enforcing an arbitral judgment entered against the Republic of India to “pierce the corporate veil” by attempt to seize Air India’s assets in Montréal, asserting that the airline was a sovereign entity. Ouellet succeeded in convincing the Court of Appeal to rule that the airline was its own business, and its assets could not be claimed to satisfy an unpaid debt on the part of a sovereign nation. “Patrick continues to dominate,” confirms a peer, “but Woods has plenty of other great people, and I would urge you to look at Bogdan Catanu! He worked with Patrick on that Air India case.” With a specialty in international arbitration, Stephen Drymer is purported to be “the busiest arbitration counsel in Canada! He’s often named tribunal secretary or tribunal president. As [firm founder and name partner] James [Woods] gets older, Stephen has really stepped up and brought on all of these massive arbitrations, while also managing an active role as a neutral arbitrator.” Yet another practitioner with cross-border arbitration experience, Louis Seveno attends to a varied caseload encompassing a range of commercial disputes. Seveno has developed a particular expertise with injunctions and construction and infrastructure work. A peer also notes, “Let’s face it, Woods has some of the top female talent in Montréal.” This observation, evidenced by the likes of Marie-Louise Delisle and Caroline Biron, was given further gravity with the recruit of Cara Cameron to its bench in November 2022. Cameron, previously with the Montréal office of Davies, comes equipped with a substantial commercial, securities and white-collar crime expertise.