Québec’s best corporate mid-market lawyers in 2021

Lexpert unveils Québec’s best corporate mid-market lawyers based on our latest exhaustive peer survey. The full list of the province’s most recommended lawyers and law firms in the field can be viewed in our practice area rankings.

In our survey, corporate mid-market law covers transactional work involving private and public businesses with a revenue range between $50 million and $200 million.

M&A practitioners focusing on this area are primarily called upon to develop transaction strategy and advise on the law as it relates to corporate, securities, finance, tax, competition, labour, employee benefits, real property, regulatory, environmental, intellectual property and litigation.

Recent Articles

Exclusive Feature: How Woods LLP’s Alexandre Baril-Furino leverages AI in the litigation space

Ilan Mints, GC at Downtown AutoGroup, on balancing customer-first vision with compliance

Fox Creek Capital CEO Bert Henry-Luc Cyr on private equity and real estate innovation

Most frequently recommended corporate mid-market lawyers

Marc B. Barbeau
Law firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year called to the bar: 1986 (QC); 1991 (New York)
City: Montréal

Marc B. Barbeau is the chair of Stikeman Elliott LLP. He is also a member of the firm’s partnership board and executive committee. Barbeau is a partner and former head of the firm’s corporate group in the Montréal office. He devotes his practice to the areas of mergers and acquisitions, complex reorganizations and corporate governance. Barbeau has considerable experience advising a diverse range of clients, including senior management and boards of directors on some of the most significant and complex Canadian and cross-border transactions.

Carl Bélanger
Law firm: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year called to the bar: 1998
City: Montréal

Carl Bélanger is a partner and co-president of the corporate and commercial law group at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP’s Montréal office. He specializes in commercial transactions and corporate structures, including mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private sector-funding. He is also well-versed in setting up funds and limited partnerships. Over the years, Bélanger has assisted clients at every step of their development in Canada and abroad. He has been active in transactions involving private equity funds and business successions through management and other buyouts. Bélanger has led a significant number of transactional files involving private or public corporations from diverse fields, including information technology, health care and services, manufacturing and industrial production, real estate development, and agriculture and food.

Michel Boislard
Law firm: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year called to the bar: 1989
City: Montréal

Michel Boislard is a partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP. He is an expert in commercial law, primarily in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, corporate financing, investment funds and securities. Boislard advises clients from the high technology and biotechnology sectors. He also represents several public and private corporations in complex domestic and international cross-border transactions. Boislard acquired extensive experience in cross-border transactions while working as resident partner at the firm’s New York office. He often acts on behalf of investment funds during acquisitions.

Patrick Boucher
Law firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year called to the bar: 1996
City: Montréal

Patrick Boucher is a partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP’s business law group in Montréal and co-head of the national capital markets practice. He specializes in the areas of securities and corporate law, concentrating on mergers and acquisitions, takeover bids and public financings. Boucher has acted as counsel to issuers and underwriters in various public offerings and private placements of publicly listed issuers. He has also participated in numerous takeover bids and going-private transactions of publicly listed issuers and has acted as counsel to independent committees in connection with various transactions.

Robert Carell
Law firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year called to the bar: 2000
City: Montréal

Robert Carelli is a partner at the securities group at Stikeman Elliott LLP. He is also the head of the firm’s corporate group in Montréal. He devotes his practice to the areas of securities, capital markets, public and private mergers and acquisitions and governance. Carelli advises issuers and underwriters on public offerings and private placements, boards of directors and private equity funds. He is also recognized for his solid track record of successfully working on complex domestic and cross-border M&A transactions for clients in various industries, including technology, retail, aviation and healthcare.

Peter Castiel
Law firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year called to the bar: 1993
City: Montréal

Peter Castiel is a partner at the corporate group at Stikeman Elliott LLP. He is also a member of the firm’s partnership board and executive committee. With over 25 years of experience, including as head of the mergers and acquisitions group in Montréal, Castiel has built a robust corporate practice that focuses on private transactions and cross-border mandates. He has extensive expertise in advising Canadian and international clients, including private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds and leading public and private companies, in connection with acquisitions, divestitures and investments.

Charles Chevrette
Law firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year called to the bar: 1993
City: Montréal

Charles Chevrette is a partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP. He is a market leader in private equity, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions and sophisticated cross-border transactions. Chevrette is active in technology-related investments and M&A in the IT, telecom and financial services sector. He has also been involved in several buy-out transactions, equity investments, joint ventures and M&As, including LBOs and MBOs, acting for private equity and venture capital funds, Fortune 500 companies and growth companies. Over the years, Chevrette has been involved in the creation of funds and investment companies both in Canada and internationally. He also acts as strategic corporate counsel for many Québec-based companies and as Canadian counsel for international investors doing business in Canada.

Marc Dorion
Law firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year called to the bar: 1979
City: Québec City

Marc Dorion is a partner at the business law group at McCarthy Tétrault LLP. He is also a co-leader of the firm’s national energy and infrastructure law groups. Dorion supervises the natural resources group in Québec and is responsible for the activities of the firm in relation to development of Northern Québec. He devotes his practice to the development and financing of major projects and other financing operations and privatizations. Dorion advises companies, lending institutions and other interveners in relation to the steps of development, financing, construction and operation of projects in the energy, infrastructure, natural resources and industrial sectors. He also acts as strategic counsel for numerous companies in connection with the development of Northern Québec and has considerable experience in commercial negotiation and public affairs. Dorion was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1992 and was awarded the title Advocatus Emeritus by the Québec Bar in 2007.

Robert Dorion
Law firm: Gowling WLG
Year called to the bar: 1975
City: Montréal

Robert Dorion is a partner at Gowling WLG’s Montréal office. He has been practising business law, with an emphasis on corporate, commercial, mergers and acquisitions and tax law for over 35 years. Over those years, Dorion has garnered extensive experience in business restructuring, acquisitions, mergers and combinations, negotiations, public and private financing and securities funding. His clients include private and public companies working regionally, nationally and internationally in sectors such as manufacturing, capital markets and retail. Dorion has also served on the board of directors of many public and private companies. He has lectured at the Université de Sherbrooke on taxation at the master’s level, the Université du Québec à Montréal for their Bachelor of Commerce program and the Université de Montréal and Université de Sherbrooke for their Bachelor of Laws program.
Read more about Gowling WLG in the key to besting improved-biosimilars

Éric Gosselin
Law firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year called to the bar: 1995
City: Montréal

Éric Gosselin is a partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP’s business law group in Montréal. He is also a member of the firm’s board of partners. Gosselin specializes in corporate and commercial law, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, partnerships, corporate reorganizations and corporate finance. He advises clients on Canadian and cross-border acquisitions. Gosselin acts for a variety of clients in the food, beverage and agribusiness, retail and consumer markets, private equity and investments, hospitality and cannabis sectors, advising them on both regulatory matters and general commercial matters. He serves as a director and vice-president/chairman on the board of each of Société de la Place des Arts, Fondation de la Place des Arts and Culture pour tous. Gosselin also chairs the faculty advisory board of the Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at McGill University’s Macdonald campus.

Shahir Guindi
Law firm: Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
Year called to the bar: 1990
City: Montréal

Shahir Guindi is the national co-chair and a member of the partnership board at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. He was a managing partner of the firm’s Montréal office for seven years prior to becoming national co-chair. Guindi also holds chairmanship at the Board of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montréal. He has more than 25 years of experience and is a recognized advisor in mergers and acquisitions, private equity and corporate finance. His private equity and venture capital experience includes advising funds on their domestic and cross-border portfolio investments and divestitures and on their fund formations. Guindi acts for several of the country’s most successful technology and biotechnology companies.

Sidney M. Horn
Law firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year called to the bar: 1978 (QC); 1982 (AB)
City: Montréal

Sidney M. Horn is a senior counsel at Stikeman Elliott LLP’s corporate group. He specializes in commercial, corporate and securities law. Horn advises large domestic and international corporations on complex questions concerning finance, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance. He has developed an expertise in complex transactions requiring creative solutions. Horn represents private equity firms in their investments in private and public corporations and corporations and independent directors in transactions such as going private transactions, related party transactions and insider bids.

Neil Katz
Law firm: Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Year called to the bar: 1996
City: Montréal

Neil Katz is a partner at Blakes, Cassels & Graydon LLP. He practises in the areas of bank financing, real estate, private equity and venture capital and commercial and business law. Katz has extensive expertise in advising leading public and private companies, institutional investors, private equity sponsors, chartered banks and other financial institutions on a variety of transactions. He acts for borrowers and lenders in a variety of domestic and cross-border loans and for vendors and purchasers of private companies, business units and real estate assets. Prior to his career in law, Katz worked as an analyst and appraiser for a major real estate developer, the investment banking arm of a Canadian chartered bank and a leading real estate appraisal firm. He writes and speaks on financing, corporate, and commercial and real estate matters. Katz is fluent in French and English.

Warren M. Katz
Law firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year called to the bar: 1996 (ON); 1996 (QC)
City: Montréal

Warren M. Katz is the managing partner of Stikeman Elliott LLP’s Montréal office. He is also a member of the firm’s partnership board and executive committee and formerly headed the corporate group. Katz specializes in cross-border mergers and acquisitions involving both public and private companies and investment funds, public offerings, private placements and going-private transactions. He specializes in Canadian and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private equity and corporate finance transactions, including representing broad and varied public and private corporations across many industries. Katz offers over 20 years of extensive experience, including strong cross-border capabilities, providing legal counsel to significant Canadian and international clients on complex transactions. His experience spans across the most active sectors and his practice includes divestitures, investments, public offerings, private placements and going-private transactions.

Kevin Kyte
Law firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year called to the bar: 1990
City: Montréal

Kevin Kyte is a partner at Stikeman Elliott’s corporate group. His practice focuses on domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, corporate, commercial, infrastructure, information technology, securities, governmental requests for proposals and contracts, Investment Canada and regulatory issues in business and financing transactions, including joint ventures, outsourcing, private placements, privatizations, reorganizations and corporate governance. Kyte has worked extensively with many industries, including energy, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical, pulp and paper, aluminum, steel, construction, heavy equipment manufacturers, engineering, mining, voice over IP and software. In addition to Canada, his work experience includes transactions in the US, Europe, Australia, India and the Caribbean.

Mathieu Laflamme
Law firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year called to the bar: 2002
City: Québec City

Mathieu Laflamme is a partner and the leader of McCarthy Tétrault’s Québec City office, where he co-heads the national private equity practice. He is highly regarded for his creative, practical advice and deep understanding of market terms for private equity, energy and infrastructure, agriculture, private debt, venture capital, real estate and impact investment funds. Laflamme is a key advisor to fund sponsors on all aspects of the fund-formation and capital-raising process and governments and other institutional investors in connection with their investments in private funds. He also frequently acts for corporations and investors in private equity, venture capital transactions and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Laflamme is a member of the board of directors of Réseau Capital and a member of Réseau Capital’s advisory committee in Québec City and the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association’s (CVCA) fund formation model documents committee.

Philippe Leclerc
Law firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year called to the bar: 1992
City: Québec City

Philippe Leclerc is a partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP’s business law group at the Montréal and Québec City offices. He boasts extensive experience in commercial, corporate and securities law. Leclerc acts as counsel to issuers and underwriters in public offerings, including IPOs, and private placements and advises management and directors on continuous disclosure and governance issues. He is also active in a wide variety of public and private mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity transactions, focusing on the life sciences and technology sectors and in project financing transactions in the energy and infrastructure sectors.

Pierre-Yves Leduc
Law firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year called to the bar: 1999
City: Montréal

Pierre-Yves Leduc is a partner and the head of the securities group at Stikeman Elliott LLP. His practice focuses primarily on the areas of public and private mergers and acquisitions, securities and corporate finance. Leduc acts as counsel to issuers and underwriters in public offerings and private placements and to corporations in acquisitions and divestitures. He advises both buyers and sellers on numerous takeover bids and going-private and restructuring transactions. Leduc also advises on corporate governance matters.

John W. Leopold
Law firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year called to the bar: 1980
City: Montréal

John W. Leopold is a senior partner at Stikeman Elliott LLP’s corporate group. He devotes his practice to mergers and acquisitions, private equity and corporate finance. He has a vast experience in cross-border transactions. Leopold acts extensively for both corporate and financial sponsor clients in both public and private company transactions and all related matters. His client base spans the globe.

Clemens Mayr
Law firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year called to bar: 1991
City: Montréal

Clemens Mayr is a partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP’s Montréal office. He specializes in domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and corporate governance. Mayr regularly represents issuers and underwriters in Canadian and cross-border public financings in various industries. He also represents boards of directors and independent committees of public companies in various contexts. He is a member of boards of directors of several private and public corporations, including the Québec Institute of Corporate Directors.

Robert Paré
Law firm: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year called to the bar: 1977
City: Montréal

Robert Paré serves as a partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP. He has been practising in the areas of corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions and securities for more than 30 years. Paré has extensive experience and was responsible for handling the legal aspects of several transactions that have marked the Canadian economic landscape. With a reputation that extends beyond the Canadian border, he is recognized for his ability to handle multifaceted files. Paré thoughtfully and rigorously leads work teams dealing with complex issues, particularly in relation to takeover bids. He also advises financially struggling companies about their recapitalization alternatives.

Paul Raymond
Law firm: Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
Year called to the bar: 1986
City: Montréal

Paul Raymond is a senior partner at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP. He has extensive domestic and international experience, mainly in the US, Europe and emerging markets. Raymond is experienced in corporate and securities law, financings and business acquisitions and sales. He has been involved in debt and equity financing of private and public corporations, governments and Crown corporations by way of private or public offerings acting on behalf of issuers and underwriters. Raymond has acted in various transactions for the purchase or sale of businesses, as well as in mergers and reorganizations. He has also been involved in various structured finance transactions.

Franziska Ruf
Law firm: Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP
Year called to the bar: 1987
City: Montréal

Franziska Ruf is a partner at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, where she is also a member of the management committee. She devotes her practice to corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and pension funds. Ruf advises on Canadian and international public and private acquisitions, divestitures, securities issuances, investments, and joint ventures. She advises domestic and foreign corporations, private equity firms, pension funds and financial advisers on public and private cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Known for her expertise in corporate governance, Ruf also advises boards of directors, special committees, senior management and shareholders on a wide range of transactions, public disclosure issues and corporate governance matters. Ruf is a director and member of the corporate governance and human resources committee of Saputo Inc. and a director and corporate secretary of La Fondation Le Chaînon.

Patrick M. Shea
Law firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year called to the bar: 2007 (QC); 2000 (New York)
City: Montréal

Patrick M. Shea is a corporate, mergers and acquisitions and private equity partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP. He co-heads the firm’s private equity group and co-manages its relationships with US law firms. His principal areas of expertise are M&A, private equity and corporate and commercial law. Shea has acted for private equity, corporate and pension fund clients in Canadian, US, and international M&A transactions across a range of industries. He has also represented numerous sponsors and investors in connection with the formation of and investments in private equity funds in Canada and abroad. Shea is the relationship partner for several Canadian clients and US and international businesses that operate in Canada, including public companies, small- and mid-sized businesses, private equity firms, hedge funds, investment banks and entrepreneurs. He is fluent in English and French. An ardent believer in giving back to the community, Shea serves on the boards of numerous foundations, charities and other not-for-profit organizations. He has led and participated in numerous charitable fundraising campaigns.

Éric Stevens
Law firm: Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
Year called to the bar: 1996
City: Montréal

Éric Stevens is a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP. He practises mainly in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, corporate law and private financings. Stevens regularly acts in major acquisitions, including strategic acquisitions for public and private companies. Stevens has also been involved for many years in various charitable causes close to his heart as a member of various corporate boards.

Carl Tremblay
Law firm: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year called to the bar: 1989
City: Québec City

Carl Tremblay is the managing partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP’s office in Québec City. He is recognized for his expertise in corporate and technology law. Tremblay focuses on mergers and acquisitions. He regularly participates in private placements and public offerings on behalf of investors, well-established companies and start-ups in the technology sector. Tremblay is also an active member of and advises several boards of directors and on governance and integrity issues. Before joining the firm, he served as managing partner for an international law firm for over eight years.

Justin D. Vineberg
Law firm: Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP
Year called to bar: 1998
City: Montréal

Justin D. Vineberg is a partner at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP’s mergers and acquisitions, corporate, retail, life sciences, technology and communications and media practices. He is also a member of the firm’s management committee. His clients primarily consist of venture capitalists, private equity funds, entrepreneurs, large Canadian, US and international enterprises and high-net-worth individuals. Vineberg advises them on structuring and negotiating M&A, divestitures, private placements, shareholder agreements and joint ventures in Canada and abroad. He also regularly advises foreign companies looking to do business in Canada, as well as Canadian companies, on issues such as product development, strategic alliances, distribution, franchising, collaboration and licensing. Vineberg also has significant experience in advising Canadian and international retailers.

Lawyer(s)

Marc B. Barbeau Carl Bélanger Michel Boislard Patrick Boucher Robert Carelli Peter Castiel Charles Chevrette Marc Dorion Robert Dorion Éric Gosselin Shahir Guindi Sidney M. Horn Neil Katz Warren M. Katz Kevin Kyte Philippe Leclerc Pierre-Yves Leduc John W. Leopold Clemens Mayr Paul Raymond Franziska Ruf Patrick M. Shea Eric Stevens Carl Tremblay Justin D. Vineberg

Firm(s)

Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP Gowling WLG McCarthy Tétrault LLP Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Stikeman Elliott LLP