Lexpert presents Québec’s best corporate and commercial litigation law firms based on the results of our latest comprehensive yearly peer survey. You can see the full list of the province’s most recommended lawyers and law firms in the field on our practice area rankings.
Corporate and commercial litigation governs almost every type of dispute that can in a business context. In our survey, the practice encompasses the provision of advice and representation, whether by way of negotiation, civil proceedings, alternative dispute resolution, mediation or arbitration. It involves all matters relating to the breach of or disputes regarding commercial contracts, and purchase and sale of assets, equipment or other lease agreements.
The practice also covers banking and financing litigation, which includes secured and unsecured enforcement and recovery, multi-party creditor disputes, asset recovery and tracing, and disputes regarding various security, financing or trade instruments. Additionally, it involves business organization disputes resulting from shareholder agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, distribution, agency and other such matters.
Most frequently recommended corporate and commercial litigation law firms
Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP
Year established: 1895
Number of lawyers: 19 (Commercial Litigation)
Number of ranked lawyers: 9
Partners: Lucien Bouchard, Marc-André Boutin, William Brock, Cara Cameron, Guy Du Pont, Denis Ferland, Julie Girard, Jean-Philippe Groleau, Christian Lachance, Gabriel Lavery Lepage, Léon H. Moubayed, Louis-Martin O’Neill, Louise Patry, George J. Pollack, Nick Rodrigo
Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP (Davies) is a full-service business law with offices in Montréal and Toronto and an international headquarters in New York. The firm specializes in high-stakes and complex litigation matters. It represents leading businesses and financial institutions in Canada and overseas. The firm advises clients in a range of practice areas, including capital markets and securities, commercial real estate, competition and foreign investment, corporate governance, dispute resolution, finance, white-collar defence, mergers and acquisitions, pensions and executive compensation, private equity and tax. Davies’ commercial litigation team represents clients across the full range of commercial disputes, from contracts to environmental and real estate disputes.
Read more about Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP on when a purchaser reneges on a deal
McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year established: 1855
Number of lawyers: 38 (Corporate and commercial litigation)
Number of ranked lawyers: 5
Partners: Hugo Babos-Marchand, Paul Blanchard, Élisabeth Brousseau, Marc Dufour, Marie-Eve Dufresne, Michel Gagné, Francois M. Giroux, Karine Joizil, Andrée-Anne Labbé, Julie-Martine Loranger, Jocelyn Perreault, Mason Poplaw, Mélanie Poisson, Gabriel Querry, Emmy Serikawa, Isabel Vendette
McCarthy Tétrault LLP is one of Canada’s leading full-service law firms, representing both domestic and international clients. It has offices in Vancouver, Montréal, Québec City, Calgary, Toronto, New York in the US and London in the UK. The firm offers integrated business, litigation, tax, real property, and labour and employment services. It boasts industry groups that provide advice in a broad range of industries, including, banking and financial services, energy and infrastructure, private equity and investments, resources and extraction, retail and consumer markets, capital markets, real estate, technology and communications, and healthcare and science. McCarthy Tétrault’s corporate commercial litigation group boasts extensive experience in domestic and cross-border dispute resolution, both in and out of the courtroom. Its top-ranked practitioners represent clients in disputes across multiple provincial and international jurisdictions. They partner with specialists across the firm in various practice areas, including banking, competition, corporate finance, government, intellectual property, labour and employment, professional liability, real estate, securities, tax and technology.
Read more about McCarthy Tétrault LLP on changes in Canada’s sales and income taxes
Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
Year established: 2012 (Canada)
Number of lawyers: 47 (Dispute resolution and litigation)
Number of ranked lawyers: 14
Partners: Maya Angenot, Jean G. Bertrand, Pierre Bienvenu, Horia Bundaru, Claudia Déry, François Fontaine, Charles A. Foucreault, Andres C. Garin, Julie Himo, Caroline Larouche, Eric C. Lefebvre, André Legrand, Sophie Melchers, Guillaume Michaud, Luc Morin, François-David Paré, Paul S. Prosterman, Jean-Charles René, Vincent Rochette, Martin J. Valasek
Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP boasts a manpower pool of more than 3,700 lawyers and legal staff based in North and Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Middle East and Africa. The international full-service law firm has offices in more than 50 cities worldwide, including Montréal, Québec City, London, Houston, New York, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney and Johannesburg. NRF’s litigation and disputes lawyers advise many of the world’s largest corporations and financial institutions on complex, high-value and sensitive multijurisdictional disputes. These lawyers boast significant experience resolving domestic and cross-border mandates, international arbitrations and investigations and enforcement for clients across all the key industry sectors including financial institutions, energy, infrastructure, mining and commodities, transport, technology and innovation and life sciences and healthcare.
Read more about Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP on cybersecurity during COVID-19
Year established: 1952
Number of lawyers: 19 (Commercial litigation)
Number of ranked lawyers: 12
Partners: Éric Azran, Guillaume Boudreau-Simard, Marc-André Coulombe, Pierre-Paul Daunais, C. Jean Fontaine, Patrick Girard, Stéphanie Lapierre, Éric Mongeau, Frédéric Paré, Danny Duy Vu
Stikeman Elliott LLP is a full-service business law firm with clients across Canada and the world. It provides counsel and advise through its offices in Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver, and overseas headquarters in New York, London and Sydney. The firm boasts an exceptional track record on multi-jurisdictional matters both domestically and internationally. Stikeman Elliott’s litigation and dispute resolution group boasts expertise across various areas, including product liability, securities regulation, competition and antitrust, directors’ and officers’ liability. The team’s members are regularly retained by boards of directors and senior management of public corporations to conduct independent investigations and inquiries on a range of sensitive legal and ethical issues. The group acts on a broad range of proceedings, from injunction applications to trials and appeals at all levels of provincial and federal courts, the Supreme Court of Canada and the full spectrum of regulatory tribunals and arbitrations.
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Woods LLP
Year established: 1992
Number of lawyers: 40+
Number of ranked lawyers: 11
Partners: Caroline Biron, Bogdan Canatu, Marie-Louise Delisle, Bogdan-Alexandru Dobrota, Stephen L. Drymer, Patrick Ouellet, Louis Sévéno, Richard Vachon, Sylvain A. Vauclair, James A. Woods, Sarah Woods
Montréal-based boutique law firm Woods LLP specializes in litigation, arbitration and insolvency cases. The firm boasts a team of lawyers who are multilingual, trained in the civil law and common law, dedicated to understanding its clients’ interests and devoted to successful advocacy. Woods acts for governments, public and private companies and individuals in all manner of corporate and commercial litigation before all levels of courts and tribunals in Canada. Its practice areas include corporate liability and governance, directors’ and officers’ liability, shareholders’ or other stakeholders’ disputes, public-private partnerships, securities litigation and matters concerning the interpretation and performance of complex commercial agreements. The firm also boasts an insolvency practice and a dedicated international arbitration practice, representing clients and serving as arbitrators in international commercial and investment arbitrations.
Most frequently recommended corporate and commercial litigation law firms
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Year established: 1856
Number of lawyers: 7 (Corporate litigation)
Number of ranked lawyers: 3
Partners: Sébastien Guy, Claude Marseille, Francis Rouleau, Robert Torralbo
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes) is one of Canada’s leading full-service business law firms. It has offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Montréal, and international headquarters in New York in the US and London in the UK. The firm provides clients with access to its full spectrum of capabilities in virtually every area of business law. Blakes handles transactions of all sizes and levels of complexity whether an issue is local or multi-jurisdictional, or practice-area specific or interdisciplinary. The firm’s litigation and dispute resolution group boasts extensive experience in corporate and commercial litigation. The team’s litigators regularly appear before all levels of court in Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada, and have been involved in precedent-setting cases related to hostile take-overs, indemnification of directors and officers, proxy contests and directors’ duties.
Read more about Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP on restructuring in a challenging economy
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
Year established: 1823
Number of lawyers: 24 (Commercial litigation)
Number of ranked lawyers: 6
Partners: Josiane Brault, Karine Chênevert, Alexander De Zordo, Marc Duchesne, Karine Fahmy, Mathieu Lévesque, Patrice Morin, Mathieu Piché-Messier, Patrick Plante
Full-service firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) boasts a more than 700-strong pool of lawyers in its offices in Vancouver, Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary. It advises businesses and other institutions on all aspects of business law, including mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, major disputes, financing, and trademark and patent registration. BLG is a bilingual English-French firm that excels under both the common and civil law systems in Canada. The firm is one of the first in North America to implement client service standards and takes pride in having a diverse and inclusive workplace. BLG’s multidisciplinary commercial litigation team is experienced in all areas of the practice, including, shareholders’ and contractual disputes, directors’ and officers’ liability, commercial fraud, banking, securities, bankruptcy and insolvency, estates and trusts, franchise and distribution.
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year established: 2000
Number of lawyers: 45 (Commercial litigation)
Number of ranked lawyers: 11
Partners: Ponora Ang, Amélie Béliveau, Nathalie-Anne Béliveau, Annie Bernard, Nikolas Blanchette, Noah Boudreau, Louis Carrière, Vincent Cérat Lagana, Nancy Demers, Guy C. Dion, Brandon Farber, Jonathan Feingold, Audrey Gagnon, Kateri-Anne Grenier, Maxime-Arnaud Keable, Yves Lacroix, Lucie Lanctuit, Stéphanie Lavallée, Christian Leblanc, Marc-André Morin, Christine Provencher, Sébastien Richemont, Alain Reindeau, Dave Robitaille, Chris Semerjian, Eric Simard, John-Philippe Therriault
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP is a full-service law firm with a more than 700-strong roster of lawyers worldwide. In Canada, its offices are located in Vancouver, Surrey, Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Québec City and Calgary. The firm also has international headquarters in London in the UK, Johannesburg in South Africa and Beijing in China. Fasken specializes in complex business and litigation matters. The firm takes pride in having a diverse and inclusive workplace, and its community involvement, pro bono work and membership in respected legal organizations globally. Fasken’s commercial litigation team resolves business disputes relating to contracts, commercial insurance, breach of fiduciary duty, professional negligence and a range of other issues. Much of the group’s commercial litigation work involves cross-border considerations such as tax, trade and corporate governance.
Langlois Lawyers, LLP
Year established: 1916
Number of lawyers: 55 (Commercial litigation)
Number of ranked lawyers: 8
Partners: Vikki Andrighetti, Gerry Apostolatos, Reynald Auger, Daniel Baum, Hans Bois, Gabrielle Brochu, Antoine Brylowski, Marie-Claude Carrier, Sylvain Chouinard, Vincent de l'Étoile, Justin Dépatie, Caroline Deschênes, Isabelle Desharnais, Sandra Desjardins, Danielle Ferron, Sean Griffin, Charles Lapointe, Eugénie Lefebvre, Pierre Y. Lefebvre, Valérie Lemaire, Katherine Loranger, François Mainguy, Catherine Martel, Elisabeth Neelin, Sophie Perreault, Marianne Plamondon, Richard R. Provost, Bernard Roy, Véronique Roy, Éric Savard, Jessica Syms, Tommy Tremblay, Renée-Maude Vachon, Sarto Veilleux, Jean-François Vézina
Langlois Lawyers, LLP is a full-service business law firm based in Montréal and Québec City. It boasts more than 150 lawyers and legal professionals. The firm offers a complete range legal services encompassing civil and commercial litigation, business and real estate law, employment and labour law, maritime law, administrative law, environmental and energy law, and governance and ethics. Langlois’ commercial litigation group is distinguished by its size and the expertise of its members, whose extensive experience enables them to advise their clients effectively regarding commercial disputes, civil liability, administrative law, corporate governance and directors’ liability. Its members are seasoned litigators who represent clients before courts and regulatory bodies.
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
Year established: 1862
Number of lawyers: 14 (Corporate and commercial litigation)
Number of ranked lawyers: 2
Partners: Éric Préfontaine, Fabrice Benoît, Céline Legendre, Julien Morrisette
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP is a full-service business law firm with offices in Montréal, Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver and New York in the US. It boasts a manpower pool of more than 400 lawyers that provide expert legal services to Canadian and international clients. The firm is recognized for its extensive expertise in business law and is consistently ranked as among Canada’s top law firms. It has substantial experience in a wide range of industries, including agribusiness, clean tech, energy, fintech, food products, gaming, health, hospitality and leisure, infrastructure, life sciences, mining, real estate investment trusts, retail and venture capital. Osler’s corporate and commercial litigators appear as counsel in all levels of courts in Ontario, Alberta, Québec and most other Canadian provinces, and in the Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Canada. They participate regularly in hearings before a variety of provincial and federal tribunals, including the Financial Services Tribunal, the Ontario Municipal Board, the Environmental Assessment Board, the Ontario Securities Commission, and the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF).
Read more about Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP on managing ESG issues in corporate Canada