Patrick Girard

Practice Areas

Patrick Girard is a partner and Head of the Montréal office's Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group. Patrick practices mainly in civil litigation with an emphasis on private international law, international arbitration and in all areas of public litigation (administrative and constitutional law).

Patrick is frequently consulted on regulatory or commercial energy matters and has given legal opinions on agreements involving the trading or generation of gas, hydro-electricity and wind turbines. In particular, he has given opinions or has been consulted regarding:

• The application of various provincial laws for the use of federal lands: Environment Quality Act, mining rights, municipal laws regarding security and noise, hydroelectric charges, etc.

• Validity issues regarding specific federal laws, such as the Seaway Property Regulations.

• Jurisdictional conflict issues between federal government branches.

• Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act matters.

Patrick has pleaded in front of all levels of Canadian jurisdiction, including the Quebec Court of Appeal, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Recent cases in which he was involved include the Supreme Court of Canada decisions in Lizotte v. Aviva Insurance Company of Canada, 2016 SCC 52, ABB Inc. c. Domtar Inc., [2007] CSC 50, Globe and Mail c. Canada (Procureur général), 2010 CSC 41, Kuwait Airways Corp. c. Irak, 2010 CSC 40 as well as the successful representation of Alstom against the STM and the Government of Quebec forcing a call for tender prior to the replacement of the Montréal metro cars, a contract evaluated at more than 1.2 billion dollars.

Patrick has also acted for Mr. Jean Pelletier, former Chief of Staff of Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Chairman of the Board of VIA Rail, in numerous proceedings opposing his illegal firing by the federal Government.

He also acted as co-counsel for the Government of Québec in front of the Bastarache Commission.

He was featured in The American Lawyer magazine’s “Canadian Big Suits” article in April 2011.