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Lavery is pleased to announce that 68 of its lawyers have been recognized as leaders in their respective fields of expertise by The Best Lawyers in Canada 2022. Lawyer of the Year   The following lawyers also received the Lawyer of the Year award in the 2022 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada: Caroline Harnois: Family Law Mediation Bernard Larocque: Professional Malpractice Law   Consult the complete list of Lavery's lawyers and their fields of expertise: Josianne Beaudry : Mining Law / Mergers and Acquisitions Law Dominique Bélisle : Energy Law Laurence Bich-Carrière : Class Action Litigation René Branchaud : Mining Law / Natural Resources Law / Securities Law Étienne Brassard : Mergers and Acquisitions Law / Real Estate Law / Equipment Finance Law Dominic Boisvert: Insurance Law (Ones To Watch) Luc R. Borduas : Corporate Law Daniel Bouchard : Environmental Law Jules Brière : Administrative and Public Law / Health Care Law Myriam Brixi : Class Action Litigation Benoit Brouillette : Labour and Employment Law Richard Burgos : Corporate Law / Mergers and Acquisitions Law Marie-Claude Cantin : Construction Law / Insurance Law Charles Ceelen-Brasseur : Corporate Law (Ones To Watch) Eugène Czolij : Corporate and Commercial Litigation / Insolvency and Financial Restructuring Law Chantal Desjardins : Intellectual Property Law Jean-Sébastien Desroches : Corporate Law / Mergers and Acquisitions Law Michel Desrosiers : Labour and Employment Law Raymond Doray, Ad. E : Administrative and Public Law / Defamation and Media Law / Privacy and Data Security Law Christian Dumoulin : Mergers and Acquisitions Law Alain Y. Dussault : Intellectual Property Law Isabelle Duval : Family Law Chloé Fauchon: Municipal Law (Ones To Watch) Philippe Frère : Administrative and Public Law Simon Gagné : Labour and Employment Law Nicolas Gagnon : Construction Law Richard Gaudreault : Labour and Employment Law Danielle Gauthier : Labour and Employment Law Julie Gauvreau : Intellectual Property Law Michel Gélinas : Labour and Employment Law Caroline Harnois : Family Law / Family Law Mediation / Trusts and Estates Marie-Josée Hétu : Labour and Employment Law Alain Heyne : Banking and Finance Law Édith Jacques : Corporate Law / Energy Law Pierre Marc Johnson, Ad. E., G.O.Q., MSRC : International Arbitration Marie-Hélène Jolicoeur : Labour and Employment Law Isabelle Jomphe : Intellectual Property Law Guillaume Laberge: Administrative and Public Law Jonathan Lacoste-Jobin: Insurance Law Awatif Lakhdar: Family Law Bernard Larocque: Class Action Litigation / Insurance Law / Professional Malpractice Law Myriam Lavallée: Labour and Employment Law Guy Lavoie: Labour and Employment Law / Workers’ Compensation Law Jean Legault: Banking and Finance Law / Insolvency and Financial Restructuring Law Carl Lessard: Labour and Employment Law / Workers' Compensation Law Josiane L'Heureux: Labour and Employment Law Hugh Mansfield : Intellectual Property Law Zeïneb Mellouli : Labour and Employment Law Patrick A. Molinari, Ad.E., MSRC : Health Care Law André Paquette: Mergers and Acquisitions Law Luc Pariseau : Tax Law Jacques Paul-Hus : Mergers & Acquisitions Law Ariane Pasquier : Labour and Employment Law Hubert Pepin : Labour and Employment Law Martin Pichette : Insurance Law / Professional Malpractice Law Élisabeth Pinard : Family Law François Renaud : Banking and Finance Law Marc Rochefort : Securities Law Judith Rochette : Professional Malpractice Law Ian Rose : Director and Officer Liability Practice / Insurance Law Éric Thibaudeau: Workers' Compensation Law Philippe Tremblay : Construction Law / Corporate and Commercial Litigation Jean-Philippe Turgeon : Franchise Law André Vautour : Corporate Law / Energy Law / Information Technology Law / Intellectual Property Law / Private Funds Law / Technology Law Bruno Verdon : Corporate and Commercial Litigation Sébastien Vézina : Mergers and Acquisitions Law Yanick Vlasak : Corporate and Commercial Litigation Jonathan Warin : Insolvency and Financial Restructuring Law

On October 30, 2020, 01 Studio Inc., an enterprising, indie gaming studio, confirmed the closing of a financing with Skymoons Technology Inc., the video game division of Chinese multimedia giant iQIYI, to accelerate its growth and the development of its flagship game, Citywars Savage. In addition to the financing, the parties have agreed on the distribution of Citywars Savage in China and neighboring countries. A Lavery team composed of Jean-François Maurice, Étienne Brassard, Sébastien Vézina, Éric Lavallée, Florence Fournier and Stéphanie Dubois played a significant role in representing the interests of 01 Studio Inc. throughout the transaction, from negotiating the term sheet to the closing the transaction.

On November 10, the M&A Club of Quebec announced that Étienne Brassard and his team had won the Deal of the Year award in recognition of the strategic role they played in the acquisition of the Molson property by Selection Group. In the video of the award presentation, he highlighted the exceptional work of his team, particularly Bernard Trang and Dolaine Béland as well as Helen Bougas, Vice President, Legal Affairs of Selection Group and her team. The M&A Awards, which were presented virtually this year, are intended to honour the outstanding work of mergers and acquisitions professionals in Quebec and more broadly to recognize the mergers and acquisitions industry and its contribution to the economy. For the second year consecutively, the Lavery team won one of the prestigious M&A awards, following the cross-border transaction of the year in 2019 for the sale of Camso Inc. to Michelin.

Lavery is pleased to announce that 64 of its lawyers have been recognized as leaders in their respective fields of expertise by The Best Lawyers in Canada 2021. The following lawyers also received the Lawyer of the Year award in the 2021 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada: René Branchaud : Natural Resources Law Raymond Doray, Ad. E : Administrative and Public Law  Édith Jacques : Energy Law André Vautour : Technology Law Consult the complete list of Lavery's lawyers and their fields of expertise : Pierre-L. Baribeau : Labour and Employment Law Josianne Beaudry : Mining Law / Mergers and Acquisitions Law Dominique Bélisle : Energy Law Laurence Bich-Carrière : Class Action Litigation René Branchaud : Mining Law / Natural Resources Law / Securities Law Étienne Brassard : Mergers and Acquisitions Law Luc R. Borduas : Corporate Law Daniel Bouchard : Environmental Law Jules Brière : Administrative and Public Law / Health Care Law Myriam Brixi : Class Action Litigation Benoit Brouillette : Labour and Employment Law Richard Burgos : Corporate Law / Mergers and Acquisitions Law Marie-Claude Cantin : Construction Law / Insurance Law Louis Charette : Aviation Law / Insurance Law / Product Liability Law / Transportation Law Eugène Czolij : Corporate and Commercial Litigation / Insolvency and Financial Restructuring Law Chantal Desjardins : Intellectual Property Law Jean-Sébastien Desroches : Corporate Law / Mergers and Acquisitions Law Michel Desrosiers : Labour and Employment Law Raymond Doray, Ad. E : Administrative and Public Law / Defamation and Media Law / Privacy and Data Security Law Christian Dumoulin : Mergers and Acquisitions Law Alain Y. Dussault : Intellectual Property Law Philippe Frère : Administrative and Public Law Nicolas Gagnon : Construction Law Richard Gaudreault : Labour and Employment Law Danielle Gauthier : Labour and Employment Law Julie Gauvreau : Intellectual Property Law Michel Gélinas : Labour and Employment Law Caroline Harnois : Family Law / Family Law Mediation / Trusts and Estates Jean Hébert : Insurance Law Alain Heyne : Banking and Finance Law Édith Jacques : Corporate Law / Energy Law Pierre Marc Johnson, Ad. E., G.O.Q., MSRC : International Arbitration Marie-Hélène Jolicoeur : Labour and Employment Law Isabelle Jomphe : Intellectual Property Law Jonathan Lacoste-Jobin : Insurance Law Awatif Lakhdar : Family Law Bernard Larocque : Class Action Litigation / Insurance Law / Professional Malpractice Law Guy Lavoie, CRIA : Labour and Employment Law / Workers’ Compensation Law Jean Legault : Banking and Finance Law / Insolvency and Financial Restructuring Law Guy Lemay, CRIA : Class Action Litigation / Labour and Employment Law Carl Lessard : Labour and Employment Law / Workers' Compensation Law Hugh Mansfield : Intellectual Property Law Zeïneb Mellouli : Labour and Employment Law Patrick A. Molinari, Ad.E., MSRC : Health Care Law Luc Pariseau : Tax Law Jacques Paul-Hus : Mergers & Acquisitions Law Ariane Pasquier : Labour and Employment Law Louis Payette, Ad. E. : Banking and Finance Law Hubert Pepin : Labour and Employment Law Martin Pichette : Insurance Law / Professional Malpractice Law Élisabeth Pinard : Family Law François Renaud : Banking and Finance Law Marc Rochefort : Securities Law Judith Rochette : Professional Malpractice Law Ian Rose : Director and Officer Liability Practice / Insurance Law Raphaël H. Schachter , c.r., Ad. E. : Criminal Defence Gerald Stotland : Family Law / Family Law Mediation Philippe Tremblay : Construction Law / Corporate and Commercial Litigation Jean-Philippe Turgeon : Franchise Law André Vautour : Corporate Law / Energy Law / Information Technology Law / Intellectual Property Law / Private Funds Law / Technology Law Bruno Verdon : Corporate and Commercial Litigation Sébastien Vézina : Mergers and Acquisitions Law Yanick Vlasak : Corporate and Commercial Litigation Jonathan Warin : Insolvency and Financial Restructuring Law

On July 7, 2020, Golo Mobile Inc., a company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange that specializes in eco-delivery in large business centres, announced the acquisition of Walter Innovations Inc., a building automation technology start-up that has created a solution to connect property managers and residents of condominiums and apartment buildings. A Lavery team composed of Étienne Brassard, Éric Lavallée and Jean-François Maurice represented the selling shareholders of Walter Innovations Inc. in an exit context, allowing Walter's initial investors and entrepreneurs to successfully sell the company and its underlying technology. More concretely, the Lavery team assisted the sellers in negotiating and implementing a transaction structure adapted to their objectives and to the consideration offered by the buyer, i.e. publicly traded shares. Through a holdback of a portion of the shares and an alignment between the duration of the holdback and the obligations of the sellers, our team enabled the seed investors to make a profitable exit and the selling shareholders involved in the direct management of Walter Innovations Inc. to transition as key employees of Golo Mobile Inc. while aligning the interests of the buyer and the sellers in order to achieve a result that is beneficial to all parties.

On June 29, Chronometriq, a North American leader in healthcare management, announced its acquisition of Health Myself Innovations Inc. A Lavery team represented and advised Chronometriq to help them succeed in this acquisition, which will enrich their platform and service offering as well as contribute to the growth of their operations in the United States. Lavery supported Chronometriq for their Series A (financing by a Silicon Valley venture capital fund) and for their Series B (financing by a New York venture capital fund). It is a privilege for us to work towards the expansion of Chronometriq and to contribute to a fast-growing Quebec success story in the field of health technologies. To read the press release, click here.

Last October 28, La Granaudière announced that it has obtained more than $50M in financing from Ressources Québec, Investissement Québec and the Caisse Desjardins du Nord de Lanaudière. A team from Lavery represented the three lenders involved in the transaction and with respect to the relations between the various stakeholders in order to successfully complete this project, which will be a showcase for the renewable energy industry in Québec. This financing will enable La Granaudière, a plant producing wood pellets from forest biomass, to complete the construction of its plant by the summer of 2020 and to start producing wood pellets and exporting them to Europe by the end of 2020. The plant will produce nearly 200,000 tonnes of pellets annually, and should create about 180 direct and indirect jobs, including roughly 50 at the production plant in Saint-Michel-des-Saints. This mandate was successfully completed thanks to the extensive expertise of the Lavery team composed mainly by Étienne Brassard, Ali El Haskouri, Katerina Kostopoulos et Bernard Trang.

On September 19, 2019, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) announced a $53 million investment in Neuvoo, a company operating in 77 countries that is experiencing rapid growth in the field of job searches. This investment will allow it to continue its expansion into new markets and improve its online platform through artificial intelligence. Lavery is proud to have assisted Neuvoo with its legal and commercial needs since the company's very beginning, when it was a member of its Lavery GO Inc. program. This is a concrete example of Lavery GO Inc.'s raison d'être: to drive the success of emerging companies and help them move from start-up to growth.

On June 11, construction began on Espace Montmorency, Laval's largest mixed-use real estate project, worth nearly $500 million. Lavery had the opportunity to play a key role in this major transaction by representing Groupe Sélection in the creation of the consortium for the construction, development and ownership of Espace Montmorency. The organization of such a consortium raised complex issues related to corporate, construction, real estate and labour law all at once. In addition to having been mandated to develop several important project agreements, including the consortium agreement governing the rights and obligations of Espace Montmorency's builders, the lawyers involved in the deal represented Groupe Sélection in the negotiation of the terms of all the agreements ancillary to the project. Espace Montmorency is a sustainable, mixed-use urban development project combining residential, commercial, cultural and community spaces. This human-scale project, located near Place Bell and Laval's main thoroughfares and directly linked to Montréal's subway system, is sure to become a popular destination. Montoni and the Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ will now rely on the recognized expertise of our client Groupe Sélection, a Canadian leader in the creation of intergenerational living environments, for the design and construction of the residential portion of the project. The work of Lavery's team, led by Étienne Brassard and composed mainly of Bernard Trang, Carole Gélinas, France Camille De Mers, André Vautour, Nicole Messier, Guy Lavoie, Élodie Brunet, Chantal Tremblay, Dolaine Béland and Joëlle Montpetit, helped launch this flagship project for Laval.