Yan Besner

Practice Areas

Yan is a Partner in the Real Estate Group of our Montréal office. He advises on acquisitions, dispositions, financing and leasing transactions to real estate companies and clients with core real estate assets critical to their businesses.

His clients include property owners, developers, lenders and other commercial clients. He is known for his extensive experience in advising national and international retailers, including businesses involved in franchising on their commercial real estate needs in Québec. Yan provides ongoing, day-to-day counsel to numerous major national and international retail clients on their commercial leasing needs across Canada. He also provides real estate counsel to institutional property owners and managers, REITS, family offices and governmental authorities.

Yan created and spearheaded the development of Estoppel Express, an estoppel certificate production service developed through the Osler Works platform.

An entrepreneurial, talented and energetic lawyer, Yan is recognized as a rising star in the commercial real estate sector in Quebec. He is a trusted and commercially savvy advisor to his clients, many of whom have worked with him for several years on multiple projects, as well as a key real estate resource within the firm, on both provincial and national levels.

Yan is regularly called upon to speak at the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) of America, of which he is an active member. He is also the 2020 Program Planning Committee Chair of the ICSC Canadian Shopping Centre Law Conference. Yan has also been a contributor to the chapter on the Landlord’s Rights and Remedies in Quebec in the book Landlords Rights and Remedies in a Commercial Lease: A Practical Guide, Second Edition and taught International Finance at the Masters Level at the Faculty of Law of Université de Montréal.

Yan is repeatedly recognized as a leading lawyer by the following legal directories:

Best Lawyers (Commercial Leasing and Real Estate Law)

The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory (Property Leasing)

Lexpert US/Canada Cross-Border Guide, 2015: listed as a Corporate Lawyer to Watch.

Lexpert Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40, 2014: Finalist.

Career

Université de Montréal, 2015, Juris Doctor

Université de Montréal, 2003, D.E.S.S, Common Law

Université de Montréal, 2001, LL.B.

Bar Admission: Quebec, 2003

Professional Memberships

Chair of the 2020 Program Planning Committee of the ICSC Canadian Shopping Centre Law Conference

Member of the ICSC Canadian Shopping Centre Law Conference (since 2017)

Member, Québec Bar

Member, Canadian Bar Association