These are the leading commercial insurance litigation law firms in Québec based on the results of Lexpert’s latest extensive annual peer review. The complete list of the province’s most recommended lawyers and law firms in the field is available on our practice area rankings.
Commercial insurance litigation generally comprises the provision of advice and representation, whether by way of negotiation, judicial proceedings, alternative dispute resolution, mediation or arbitration in all matters relating to liability and coverage disputes. It also involves risks, property and other such cover between insurers, insureds, reinsurers, excess insurers, intermediaries, special risks underwriters and insurance mutuals.
Consistently recommended commercial litigation law firms
Clyde & Co Canada LLP
Year established: 1992 (Canada)
Number of lawyers: 50 (Insurance & Reinsurance – Commercial Disputes)
Number of ranked lawyers: 6
Partners: Louis-Philippe Constant, Nathalie David, Robert Emblem, Carolena Gordon, Caroline Malo, Trevor McCann, Dominic Naud, John Nicholl
Clyde & Co Canada LLP advises on all aspects of insurance defence and coverage, commercial and construction litigation, class action defence, arbitration and mediation. It has offices in Montréal and Toronto. The firm’s lawyers boast a deep understanding of the insurance industry and work closely with its network of over 50 international headquarters. Clyde & Co assists major insurers, licensed intermediaries and businesses with multi-jurisdictional dispute resolution, and worldwide and domestic compliance initiatives that cover a full range of issues, claims monitoring, claims auditing and risk management consulting.
Repeatedly recommended commercial litigation law firms
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG)
Year established: 1823
Number of lawyers: 16 (Disputes – Insurance Claim Defence)
Number of ranked lawyers: 2
Partners: Josiane Brault, Mélanie Champagne, Jean-Marie Fontaine, Gilbert Hourani, Gabriel Lefebvre, Darren McGuire, Anne Merminod, Stéphane Pitre
Full-service firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) 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. The firm has over 700 lawyers in its offices in Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver. It excels under both the common and civil law systems. BLG is Canada’s oldest law firm and one of the first in North America to implement client service standards.
BLG’s insurance claim defence team represents some of the largest national and global insurers, reinsurers and reciprocals, brokerage firms, companies carrying significant self-insured retentions, adjusting firms and insurance regulatory bodies. The group’s lawyers help defend clients against complex insurance claims, including class actions, and litigate at every level of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada. These lawyers also assist in defining insurance objectives, drafting policy wording, confirming necessary coverage, prosecuting subrogated claims and navigating negotiations, mediations and arbitrations.
Langlois Lawyers, LLP
Year established: 1916
Number of lawyers: 24 (Insurance litigation)
Number of ranked lawyers: 4
Partners: Vikki Andrighetti, Antoine Brylowski, Caroline Deschênes, Nathalie Dubé, Jean-François Gagnon, Pierre Y. Lefebvre, Valérie Lemaire, Katherine Loranger, François Mainguy, Joanie Proteau, Richard R. Provost, Véronique Roy, Renée-Maude Vachon
Langlois Lawyers, LLP is a full-service firm and one of the largest in the province. The firm has more than 150 lawyers and legal professionals working in its offices in Montréal and Québec City. Langlois offers a complete range of legal services in several areas, including civil and commercial litigation, business and real estate, employment and labour, maritime, administrative, environmental and energy, and governance and ethics. Since 2018, the firm has been a major partner of Clinique juridique Juripop, a legal clinic committed to providing legal services to clients who are financially unable to defend their rights. Langlois has a well-established reputation in insurance law litigation, built on the expert knowledge of its team members and its representation of Canadian and foreign clients. The group draws on a natural depth of expertise in different insurance-related areas, including insurance products and their distribution and registration, and handles questions and issues in disputes of all scales and types.
Lavery, de Billy, L.L.P.
Year established: 1979
Number of lawyers: 21 (Insurance)
Number of ranked lawyers: 2
Partners: Anne Bélanger, Myriam Brixi, Marie-Claude Cantin, Louis Charette, Jonathan Lacoste-Jobin, Bernard Larocque, Martin Pichette, Marie-Hélène Riverin, Judith Rochette, Ian Rose
Lavery, de Billy, L.L.P. is one of the top independent law firms in Québec with offices in Montréal, Québec City, Sherbrooke and Trois-Revières. It provides a comprehensive range of legal services to regional, national and multinational corporations, financial institutions, Crown corporations and government departments and agencies. The firm also has an extensive practice in advising other Canadian and foreign law firms on matters pertaining to Québec law. It consists of 250 lawyers and legal professionals.
Lavery is a recognized as among the leaders in the fields of property, life and disability and liability insurance. The firm’s insurance team acts for insurers, risk managers, brokers, adjusters and representatives at every stage of a claim. The group also advises major corporations, SMEs and individuals. The team provides a range of services, including the drafting and analysis of insurance contracts, drafting of distribution contracts, advising of the selection and purchase of insurance products, providing legal opinions on the scope of coverage, support for claims adjusters during investigations, evaluation of bodily injury and negotiation of structured settlements, representation before the courts and alternative dispute resolution methods, including arbitration and mediation.
McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year established: 1855
Number of lawyers: 10 (Insurance Litigation)
Number of ranked lawyers: 1
Partners: Sophie Arpin, Marie-Eve Dufresne, Marc Dufour, Jean Lortie, Julie-Martine Loranger, Emmanuelle Poupart, David E. Roberge
One of Canada’s leading full-service law firms, McCarthy Tétrault LLP caters to domestic and international clients. It offers integrated business, litigation, tax, real property, and labour and employment services. The firm has offices in Montréal, Québec City, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, New York in the US and London in the UK. McCarthy Tétrault consists of industry groups that provide advice across several 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. The firm’s lawyers have acted as counsel at every level of the federal and provincial court systems, and frequently appear before regulatory and administrative tribunals and commercial arbitrations.
McCarthy Tétrault LLP is the only major law firm in Canada that provides advice exclusively to property and casualty insurance policyholders. The firm’s insurance lawyers are experts on numerous insurance products on the market. Many learned the intricacies of insurance law and general and class action litigation working inside the legal departments of insurance companies, businesses or boutique law firms specializing in insurance. As needed, they partner with the firm’s specialists in labour, health, security, environmental, securities, tax or bankruptcy law.
Read more about McCarthy Tétrault LLP on the growth of capital markets
Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
Year established: 1879
Number of lawyers: 23 (Insurance)
Number of ranked lawyers: 1
Partners: Maxime Cantin, Pierre Déry, Mathieu Deschamps, Thierry Dorval, Pierre Duquette, Marc Duquette, Charles A. Foucreault, Ian Gosselin, Caroline Larouche, André Legrand, David Lemieux, Paul S. Prosterman, Jean-Charles René, Christian B. Roy, Louis Roy
Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP boasts more than 3,700 lawyers and legal staff based in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Middle East and Africa. In Canada, the firm has offices in Montréal, Québec City, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver. It advises corporations and financial institutions on all aspects of business law. The firm has clients in several industries, including finance, energy, infrastructure, mining, transportation, technology, life sciences and healthcare.
NRF’s global team of insurance lawyers advises many of the world’s leading insurers and reinsurers on their most significant corporate, regulatory and transactional matters, and complex claims, class actions, disputes and investigations. The group has extensive experience in blockchain, smart contracts and distributed ledger technologies, which are now the subject of both proof-of-concept trials and live deployments by insurance companies. The team also helps clients analyze, manage and mitigate the associated legal and regulatory risks related to the deployment of insurance technology or InsurTech.
Read more about Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP on the importance of vigilance to avoid fraud
Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year established: 1952
Number of lawyers: 3 (Insurance and reinsurance)
Partners: Laurent Fortier
Full-service business law firm Stikeman Elliott LLP has offices in Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver. Internationally, it has headquarters in New York, London and Sydney. The firm is an expert in multi-jurisdictional matters and provides counsel and advice to clients across Canada and around the world. Its primary practices areas include mergers and acquisitions, securities, litigation and dispute resolution, banking and finance, competition and foreign investment, tax, restructuring, energy, real estate, project development, pensions, and employment and labour.
Stikeman Elliott’s insurance and reinsurance group excels at complex corporate transactions in the insurance sector, including mergers and acquisitions and public offerings. The team handles virtually every regulatory issue insurance companies in Canada, the US and internationally may encounter. The firm’s insurance litigators provide coverage advice on large, complex insurance disputes, and when necessary, defend such disputes. They are experts in class actions and precedent-setting disputes that may threaten the operations, reputation or future prospects of insurance sector clients.