News

On April 20, 2021, GroupAssur, a managing general agent (MGA) offering specialty insurance products across Canada, announced its merger with our client Evolution Insurance, a wholesaler specializing in the underwriting of complex liability and construction risks. The merger makes GroupAssur Canada’s largest independent managing general agent in property and casualty insurance. Evolution Insurance’s expertise will enable GroupAssur to expand its product offering into target markets across Canada. A Lavery team led by Martin Pichette and Sébastien Vézina and composed of Jean-Paul Timothée, Gabriella Settino, Isabelle Normand and Florence Fournier (transactional) and Ali El Haskouri, Bernard Trang and Ana Nascimento (financing) played a significant role in representing Evolution Insurance’s interests throughout the transaction.

Lavery is pleased to announce the arrival of a new partner, Eric Stevenson, who is joining the Business Law group at our Québec office. Eric’s leading expertise will increase the quality and depth of Lavery’s consulting and representation service offering, in particular with its financial sector clients and stakeholders. For Eric Stevenson, this represents a return to his roots, given that he worked for the firm prior to joining the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). A professional who has an outstanding reputation and whose leading expertise and keen knowledge are renowned in Québec, Canada and abroad Until just recently, Eric Stevenson was the superintendent, client services and distribution oversight at the AMF.He lead a team of 150 employees with the mandate of overseeing the activities relating to the distribution of financial services and products in Québec all in the while establishing the regulatory framework governing this sector of activities. His role also included issuing exercise rights to insurance and securities operators. Eric was also in charge of the AMF team tasked with evaluating the integrity of companies and their directors who were seeking to conclude agreements with the Québec government and granting the requested authorization, when applicable. Eric Stevenson has represented the AMF before several key organisations in particular by serving as a member of the market intermediaries’ commission of the International Organization of Securities Commissions. He also presided or took part in numerous committees of the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators as well as served on several committees of the Canadian securities regulatory authorities. “Coming back to Lavery was an evident choice considering that the firm benefits from an outstanding reputation and the financial sector’s stakeholders regularly recognize the excellence of its integrated legal services offering”, says Eric Stevenson. “I am delighted to rejoin a consulting team that is devoted to offering a memorable client-based approach that is well-rooted in a deep understanding of the client’s actual business reality. I am also eager to help Lavery’s current and future clients benefit from my knowledge andvast network of contacts that I had the privilege to develop over the past years.” A leadership connected to the client’s business reality coinciding with Lavery’s vision “As a seasoned attorney, experienced manager and a proven strategist, Eric’s profile, rooted in the realities of the financial industry, is well suited to meet our client’s expectations. With a unique career path, Eric will leverage his leadership and know-how to play an active part in Lavery’s role as a leader of transformation in Québec’s legal market. We are especially proud of the fact that he has chosen Lavery and our Québec City office as a re-entry point into the professional services sector. Eric’s return to Lavery is a testament to the firm’s power to attract exceptional talents”, concludes Anik Trudel, Lavery’s Chief Executive Office.

Evelyne Verrier, a partner and head of the Distribution of Financial Products and Services group, served as a panelist during the 2017 Insurance and Investment Convention organized by The Insurance & Investment Journal. The Convention was held on November 14 at the Palais des congrès in Montréal. Entitled Robots-conseillers et conseillers: ennemis jurés ou partenaires?, the purpose of the panel was to discuss the evolving role of advisors in an age when FinTech and accelerated technological developments are becoming increasingly prevalent in the insurance industry. Accompanied by Alex Veilleux, Co-Owner, Chief Innovation Officer and Product Strategist at VOOBAN and Michel Bergeron, a partner in EY, Ms. Verrier took the opportunity to share her view of the future for insurance advisors, the types of high value-added activities that advisors can use to distinguish themselves and the liability issues associated with various technological tools available to advisors.

On October 27, Frédéric Bélanger and Benjamin Poirier, lawyers in the Litigation and Dispute Resolution group, spoke at an educational event on the topic of recent developments in insurance law organized by the Barreau du Québec and held at the InterContinental Hotel in Montreal. Their presentation, entitled La recherche de la vérité a ses limites [there are limits to the search for truth], addressed the principles of confidentiality in an effort to find a balance between the search for truth and the integrity of the justice system. It also attempted to identify the sometimes elusive structure of the legal framework that governs the privileges of confidentiality for insurance litigation practitioners, as those privileges have evolved in recent decisions. Their presentation was prepared with the close collaboration of Bernard Trang, a student in the Montreal office. They also addressed this topic in Développements récents en droit des assurances 2017, published by the continuing education service of the Barreau du Québec.

On October 25, in conjunction with Déry Barrette, a claims adjustment firm, Lavery held its annual conference on recent developments in damage insurance at the Delta Sherbrooke Hotel. Frédérick Breton and Jonathan Lacoste-Jobin, respectively a lawyer and a partner in the Litigation and Conflict Resolution Group, summarized significant decisions handed down over the past year in property and casualty insurance.

Maude Lafortune-Bélair, a lawyer of the Litigation and Conflict Resolution group, spoke during the 3rd edition of the conference on insurance law organized by Éditions Yvon Blais, held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Montréal on October 18. Entitled L’exclusion pour actes criminels, her presentation addressed the specific elements to include when drafting and enforcing an exclusion clause for criminal acts. Me Lafortune-Bélair also discussed parallels that could be drawn between similar exclusions, such as those regarding intentional fault.

On April 3, Léonie Gagné, a lawyer in our Litigation and Conflict Resolution Group, moderated a seminar during the Insurtech QC 2017 Day, which was held at the Quebec City port terminal as part of the Semaine numérique (Digital Week) in Quebec City. The seminar, entitled Répondre aux besoins des nouveaux consommateurs : l'assurance de l'économie collaborative (Responding to the Needs of the New Consumer: Insurance of Collaborative Economics), the two speakers Emmanuelle Mury, co-founder of InsPeer, a French peer-to-peer insurance platform, and Tim Attia, CEO of Slice Labs, an American on-demand insurance platform, discussed the topic of the transformation of the insurance industry and the emergence of insurance platforms in this new era of Insurance 2.0.

On March 14, Léonie Gagné, a lawyer in the Litigation and Conflict Resolution Group, led a discussion as part of the sixth annual Journée de l’assurance de dommages (damage insurance conference) at the Montréal Convention Centre organized by the Journal de l’assurance, this year’s theme being “Connectés à l’assurance réinventée” (Connected to reinvented insurance). Over the years, the Journée de l’assurance has become an event not to be missed in the insurance industry. The panel discussion, entitled L’économie collaborative change la société : l’assurance en fera-t-elle partie ? (the sharing economy is changing society: will insurance be part of that change?), saw panelists examine the business potential for insurers and insurance brokers in the emergence of the sharing economy.

Jonathan Lacoste-Jobin et Bernard Larocque, partners of our Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group, presented the 2016 review of insurance law jurisprudence at the Chambre de l’assurance de dommages (ChAD) on February 21 and at the Canadian Insurance Claims Manager Association (CICMA)on February 23. These two events, which brought together more than 60 attendees, highlighted the 2016 key decisions in the field of insurance law.

On February 8 and 9, 2017, Jonathan Lacoste-Jobin and Bernard Larocque, partners and members of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group, presented the 2016 annual review of insurance law jurisprudence. The presentation took place in our Montreal office as our Québec City and Sherbrooke offices joined through video-conference. This event brought together over 150 attendees where our speakers summarized and exchanged on the main judgments rendered in Quebec during the year 2016.

On January 31, 2017, Jonathan Lacoste-Jobin and Bernard Larocque, partners of our Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group, presented the 2016 review of insurance law jurisprudence at the Jean Bélanger Conference of the Canadian Bar Association, Quebec division (ABC-Quebec). This event, which brought together more than 75 attendees, highlighted the 2016 key decisions in the field of insurance law.