1000 De La Gauchetière St W, Suite MZ400, Montréal, QC
Year called to bar: 1996 (QC)
François is a partner in the firm’s Litigation group in Montreal since 2002 and a long-standing member of the firm’s recruitment committee. François has more than 25 years of experience advising clients on high-end and strategic corporate commercial disputes and class actions. François has a very active trial and appellate litigation practice and regularly appears before courts of all levels in Quebec and before domestic and international commercial arbitration tribunals. He also frequently advises clients in relation to internal and regulatory investigations. He is ranked as a Litigation Star and as a leading lawyer in the fields of corporate/commercial litigation and class actions litigation in Benchmark Canada and The Best Lawyers in Canada, and as a leader in the field of Commercial Litigation in Chambers and in Lexpert. François was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1996, after completing his civil law (Montreal) and common law (Toronto) degrees.
On December 29, 2017, Mr. Don E. Wall (Don Wall), PHI Inc. (PHI) and HNZ Group Inc. (HNZ), a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed provider of helicopter transportation and related support services, completed a statutory plan of arrangement pursuant to which, among other things, Don Wall, through a beneficially wholly-owned acquisition company, acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares and variable voting shares of HNZ for $18.70 in cash per share, and PHI subsequently acquired HNZ’s offshore business conducted in New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. The total consideration paid to former holders of HNZ shares was approximately $233 million
On November 20, 2017, Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc. (Rayonier AM), a Florida-based leading global supplier of high purity cellulose, announced it had completed its friendly acquisition of Tembec Inc. (Tembec), a Québec forestry firm, for approximately US$962 million.
