Canadian Lawyer InHouse

April 2015 28 INHOUSE TOP 10 QUEBEC REGIONAL FIRM REPORT 1 | lavery de Billy Lavery.ca Total lawyers: 200 core practice areas: Business transactions/mergers and acquisi- tions; taxation; litigation and dispute resolution; labour and employment; fi nancing and fi nancial services key clients: CH Group Ltd. Partnership; Osisko Mining Corp.; Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec; Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.; National Bank of Canada; Fiera Axium Infrastructure Inc. affi liations: World Services Group 2 3 | Bcf llP bcf.ca Total lawyers: 150 core practice areas: Mergers and acquisitions; tax; corporate fi nance and banking; commercial law; commercial litigation key clients: Groupe BMR; Bombardier Aeronautique; Quebecor; Mouvement Desjardins; RBC; CGI affi liations: Meritas | cain lamarre casgrain wells llP clcw.ca Total lawyers: 167 core practice areas: Commercial and corporate affairs; banking and fi nance; labour and employment law; native affairs; public administration (health and social services) key clients: Financial institutions; public administration (health care institutions, municipalities, public institutions); First Nations; telecommunications carriers; transportation companies; compa- nies operating in the energy and natural resources sector affi liations: SCG Legal; TAGLaw 4 5 6 the FOLLOWInG are the tOP 10 queBeC reGIOnaL FIrMS aS DeterMIneD BY reaDerS OF CanaDIan LaWYer MaGaZIne. | langlois kronström desjardins lkd.ca Total lawyers: 101 core practice areas: Insurance law; business law; civil and commercial litigation; employment and labour law; trans- portation law key clients: Intact Insurance; Canadian National Railway; Desjardins Group; Canadian Royalties; Telus affi liations: Lexing | robinson sheppard shapiro llP rsslex.com Total lawyers: 76 core practice areas: Business law; litigation; insurance law; transportation law; labour law key clients: Burger King Corp.; National Bank of Canada; Fonds d'assurance-responsabilité Professionnelle de la Chambre des notaires du Québec; Stericycle Inc.; Société de Vin Internationale Ltée; Underwriters at Lloyd's affi liations: International Lawyers Network | de grandpré chait llP degrandprechait.com Total lawyers: 70 core practice areas: Real estate; litigation; business; construction; taxation key clients: AGF Group; BlueBridge Wealth Manage- ment; BTB Real Estate Investment Trust; Groupe Canam; Loblaws/Provigo Distribution Inc.; RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust affi liations: Interlaw, Lexwork sign up for a card by offering them a carrot that could only serve to spur them to incur futher debt. The bill was bill 24 — an amendment to the Consumer Protection Act known as "An act mainly to combat consumer debt overload and modernize consumer credit rules." It was put forward on the basis of the decision of the Quebec Superior Court in the case of the Bank of Montreal v. Marcotte, which ended up at the Supreme Court of Canada. It was ultimately decided in September 2014 and the SCC upheld the decision that Quebec's consumer protection legislation is applicable to federally regulated banks. "Part of it is going too far in understanding people's motivations to take a credit card; loy- alty currrency plays a part in which credit card a consumer chooses, but not necessarily the decision to take up a credit card," says Greenberg. "Further, the banks have robust credit worthiness safeguards in place, so I am not sure that the appropriate mechanism for addressing credit card debt is via consumer protection legislation." What was concerning from a Quebec law perspective, she says, was the thought process around how a proposed provincial type of law would impact a federally regulated organization. "Marcotte provided that provincial law could apply to federally regulated organizations as long as the law didn't confl ict with one another and the Supreme Court upheld that decision," she says. The government opted to hold off passing the bill, pending the outcome of the SCC deliberations in Marcotte , but Greenberg says the concern is it could come up again. "Now that we know that there has been a Supreme Court decision that allows for provincial legislation to apply in respect of a federally regulated organization — there is a concern the bill will get re-introduced. It's certainly something we're keeping an eye on given the industry we're in," she says. "Given that bill we wonder what might come through that could affect our federally regulated partners and will it potentially affect us." Apart from that, Greenberg is always on the look out for changes to privacy laws. "CASL was a big one. At this point things are relatively quiet but there could be changes," she says.

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