Back

Patrick Plante

Partner

Montréal
[email protected]
514.954.2571

Expertise

Linda Latreille

Practice Assistant

Montréal
[email protected]
514.954.1905
514.954.2555

Patrick focuses his practice on commercial litigation, and acts in many lawsuits dealing with civil and contractual liability. With sound judgment and exceptional analytical sharpness, he handles complex class actions in the fields of environment, banking, product liability, consumer law and privacy.

Patrick also deals with special procedures (injunction), transports law, banking litigation, constitutional law, administrative law and disciplinary law. He participates in the preparation of cases and pleads before all judicial bodies in Québec.

Experience

  • Participates in defending important class actions, and in particular:
    • Defends the interests of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company in the class action relating to the Lac Mégantic accident (Ouellet c. Canadian Pacific Railway Company et al.).
    • Defends the interests of Aéroports de Montréal in the class actions relating to the aircraft noise pollution and relating to the health hazard allegedly caused by airborne nanoparticles.
    • Defends the interests of HSBC in the Defrance Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) fee class action (Defrance et Vaillancourt-Thivierge c. Banque de Montréal et al.).
    • Defends the interests of AIC Global Holdings Inc. in the class action relating to the so-called "market timing" financial operations (Ravary c. Fonds mutuels CI Inc. and AIC Global Holdings (500-06-000256-046)).
    • Defended the interests of BMO in high-profile class actions (Haroch v. Toronto Dominion Bank et al., (500-06-000930-186) and Pilon c. Banque Amex du Canada (500-06-000899-183)).
    • Defended the interests of Google before the Court of Appeal, in which the co-defendants obtained the dismissal of a class action in relation to the automatic renewal of online subscriptions after a free trial period (Benabu c. Vidéotron et al.).
    • Defended JTI-Macdonald Corp. in the historical tobacco class actions (Conseil québécois sur le tabac et la santé c. JTI-Macdonald Corp. et al. and Létourneau c. JTI-Macdonald Corp. et al.).
  • Participated in the debate concerning the constitutional validity of the Tobacco-related Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act.
  • Represented victims of defamatory campaigns on the Internet and took measures to protect their public images.
  • Represented a Canadian financial institution before the courts in a dispute dealing with unjustified enrichment of adverse parties resulting from an error made in a bank transfer.
  • Participated in the debate on prohibiting the disclosure in court proceedings of supervisory information sent to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.

Beyond Our Walls

Professional Involvement

  • Member, Canadian Bar Association
  • Member, Young Bar of Montréal
  • Member, The Advocates’ Society

Community Involvement

  • Member, Montréal Regional Council, University of Ottawa Alumni Association

Awards & Recognitions

  • Recognized in the 2024 edition (and since 2019) of Best Lawyers in Canada ® (Corporate and Commercial Litigation) and since 2021 (Class Actions Litigation).
  • Recognized in the 2023 of Benchmark Litigation's - The Definitive Guide to Canada's Leading Litigation Firms & Attorneys as a Litigation Star,in the 2018-2021 editions as a "40 and Under Hotlist", in the 2018-2021 as a Future Star.
  • Recognized in the 2021 edition of Lexpert Special Edition: Litigation
  • Recognized in the 2024 and in the 2021 editions of the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory (Litigation - Corporate Commercial).
  • Finalist at the Young Bar Association of Montreal (YBAM) Lawyers of the Year Award (2015): civil and commercial litigation.
  • Recipient of the Lexpert® Zenith Award (2011), awarded to the pro bono team of the year, for having represented Mr. Réjean Hinse.
  • Selected as "Star Graduate" at the University of Ottawa at the conferral of degrees in 2008, recognizing his exceptional achievements during his university years.
  • Recipient of some 20 awards of excellence, including the Gold Medal and Plaque of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa for achieving the highest average in the civil law program.
  • Recipient of the Barreau du Québec Award in 2008 for having maintained the highest average among all law students who completed their bachelor's degrees at the University of Ottawa.
  • Recipient in 2007 of the Ronald St. John MacDonald Award that is granted to the team with the highest score for the factum it presented in the Canadian qualifications for the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition. The following year, Patrick acted as pleading consultant for the University of Ottawa team, in the same competition.
  • Recipient in 2006 of a BLG Research fellowship that enabled him to collaborate in the writing of a research document (monograph) on contract law in Québec, which will be published in the International Encyclopaedia of Law.

Bar Admission & Education

  • Québec, 2009
  • LLB, University of Ottawa, 2008
  • MA in Industrial Relations, Université Laval, 2005
  • BA in Labour Science & Political Science, York University, 2003