2013 marks Lavery’s centennial. As with all success stories, ours starts from humble beginnings. More precisely in Québec City where two enterprising young lawyers, Onésime Gagnon and Maurice Dupré, laid the foundation stone of a structure that was to become a few decades later Québec’s leading independent law firm.
During the last 100 years, our firm had its share of momentous events that helped Lavery reach beyond insurance law, which had been for a long time our bread and butter. Likewise, we have enlarged the scope of services provided to increasingly demanding and sophisticated clients. Throughout the last century, Lavery was redefined by generations of pioneers with vision who foresaw emerging trends in the legal services market and made the right decisions to maximize growth and ensure the firm’s future.
Among the major law firms in Québec, Lavery has always been renowned for its leading litigators who have argued numerous precedent-setting and famous cases. In the legal community, Lavery is considered “a seedbed of judges” since many of our former partners have been appointed to the bench. This well-deserved reputation cannot be explained solely by the great number of litigators who practised at the firm. It also has to do with the fact that, in the firm’s history, each generation of lawyers was determined to transfer their knowledge to the succeeding generation.
In addition to maintaining its litigation practice, Lavery has constantly reinvented itself by offering its clients a wider range of services in areas of practice such as labour and employment law, administrative law and business law. The decision to grow our business law practice enabled Lavery to execute prestigious mandates which in turn reinforced our brand.
Our illustrious predecessors would be proud to see that the structure, which was patiently built stone by stone over the years, stands out in the Québec legal landscape. One of the firm’s most rewarding accomplishments is to have been able to preserve and pass on the values that have shaped our identity in the last century: human qualities, professional expertise, respect, innovation and training. Once these values are combined, something essential becomes visible to the eye: Lavery has a soul.
2018
Goudreau Gage Dubuc (GGD), one of the leading intellectual property firms in Canada, joins Lavery.
2014
In March 2014, close to a hundred lawyers, notaries and employees from the Montreal, Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières offices of Heenan Blaikie join Lavery.
2013
Lavery celebrates its 100th anniversary
2007
On October 1st a group of 34 lawyers specialized in business law join Lavery, de Billy from the firm Desjardins Ducharme.
Lavery, de Billy
1991
The Quebec City firm Gagnon, de Billy, Cantin, Beaudoin, Lesage & Associés merges with the Montreal firm Lavery O’Brien to become Lavery, de Billy.
Lavery O’Brien (Montreal)
1979
The firm Lavery O’Brien is founded.
1949
Tansey, de Grandpré and de Grandpré is founded in 1949. Claude Lavery joins the firm in the 1960s.
1926
Audette and Lorrain found their firm in Montreal. A year later, John L. O’Brien joins the firm.
Gagnon, de Billy, Cantin, Beaudoin, Lesage & Associés (Quebec)
1990
The firm becomes Gagnon, de Billy, Cantin, Beaudoin, Lesage & Associés at the beginning of the 1990s.
1931
Valmore de Billy joins the firm.
1913
Dupré and Gagnon found their firm in Quebec City.