Our French Legal Experience

Our French-speaking lawyers have experience in the following areas:

Business Law

• Corporate organization, re-organization and governance for share and non-share corporations
• Share/asset transactions
• Shareholder/partnership agreements
• Negotiating and documenting commercial transactions
• Transactional financing for institutional and private lenders
• Purchase and sale of a business
• Privatization
• Emerging advanced technology and bio-medical development matters
• Technology licensing
• Debt collection, workouts and mortgage remedy matters for secured and unsecured institutional and private lenders
• Bankruptcy and insolvency

Employment Law

• Recruitment and hiring
• Contracts
• Independent contractors
• Pension and benefits
• Job classification
• Competition
• Stock options
• Dismissal and layoff
• Employment standards
• Human resources policies
• Harassment
• Human rights
• Workplace safety and insurance
• Occupational health and safety
• Taxation
• Retirement compensation arrangements

Estate Planning and Administration 

• Administered an estate in excess of 14 million dollars which held, in addition to numerous assets, several limited companies and numerous parcels of real estate.
• Located a beneficiary named in a will in Vienna - surviving Canadian members of family had never been to Vienna and had never met named beneficiary.
• Located numerous assets, in several files, which were unknown to Estate Trustees and family members of deceased.
• Prepared detailed accounting in estate files for the purpose of Passing of Accounts.
• Represented Solicitors from England on contentious issue with respect to Powers of Attorney granted in Ontario to person in England.
• Trustee of estate willing to accept $10,000 offered by automobile insurance company. Conducted negotiations with automobile insurance company and obtained payment to deceased teenage child in the amount of $97,000.
• Retained by U.S. law firm and obtained Certificate of Ancillary Appointment of Estate Trustee with a Will and effected transfer of Ontario real estate property to U.S. beneficiary.
• Obtained Certificates of Appointment of Estate Trustee of Holograph Wills where deceased had left handwritten notes which the beneficiaries did not realize were valid wills.
• Obtained Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee during litigation.
• Applied to the Court and proved Will in Solemn Form, where only a photocopy of the will could be located.
• Obtained appointment of guardians for children under the Children's Law Reform Act.
• Obtained appointment of guardians for mentally incompetent adults under the Substitute Decisions Act.
• Successfully negotiated a settlement that provided the same sex partner of deceased with a significant portion of the estate, even though the deceased died without a will and the same sex partner was not legally recognized as having a claim to a share in the estate. Involved a constitutional challenge to the definition of "spouse" under Ontario's Family Law Act and Succession law Reform Act.
• Litigated against an estate for support on behalf of the common law spouse of the deceased.
• Litigated against an estate for support on behalf of a child of the deceased.
• Estate litigation action against estate and life insurer for support of defendant (dependent) minor.
• Successfully represented child of deceased in claim against insurer refusing to pay proceeds pursuant to a life insurance policy.

Insurance Defence

• Personal injury and fatality
• Comprehensive general liability
• Professional liability (representing lawyers, dentists, architects, engineers, accountants, patent and trade mark agents, real estate agents, insurance brokers and other professionals)
• Life and disability insurance claims
• Fire loss and arson
• Environmental claims
• Fraudulent claims
• Directors' and officers' liability
• All types of liability issues including hospital, occupier's, and product liability
• Conflict of laws between Quebec and Ontario

Labour Law

• Representing members before professional tribunals· Organizing workers and getting bargaining rights
• Collective agreements interpretation and administration
• Making effective use of labour relations legislation
• Negotiation of federal and provincial collective agreements
• Harassment rights
• Human rights
• Union administration and member representation
• Maintaining member rights in restructuring situations

Personal Injury and Wrongful Death

• Motor vehicle negligence
• Drunk driving
• Commercial host liability
• Social host liability
• Product liability
• Boating and snowmobile negligence
• Slip & fall liability
• Sexual abuse
• Government liability
• Medical malpractice

Real Estate and Development

• Commercial and residential acquisitions, sales and financing
• Condominium Law
• Official plan amendments
• Construction liens
• Zoning amendments
• Zoning interpretations
• Zoning variances and permissions
• Subdivision plans
• Severances and part lot control exemptions
• Site plan approvals
• Site corporations
• Building permits and building code compliance
• Enforcement of by-laws and property standards
• Expropriations
• Assessment appeals
• Conversion of rental buildings, co-tenancies and co-operatives to other forms of property ownership
• Commercial leasing
• Joint venture syndications
• Environmental issues
• Interpretation and application of Guidelines for Waste Contaminated Sites in Ontario