Montreal, April 27, 2010 – Lavery is pleased to announce that Jean Martel has been named Advocatus Emeritus (Ad.E.) by decision of the General Council of the Bar of Quebec.

This title was created in 2007 to recognize the exceptional contribution of certain lawyers to the advancement of the profession or the work of the Bar. Mr Martel will therefore join the group of 158 lawyers currently holding this distinction among the 23 000 members of the Québec Bar.

Jean Martel’s practice is focused both on a national and international level on securities, financial institutions, financial services and corporations. In these fields, he advises regulators and industry groups of the securities and financial services sectors, institutional investors and leading participants of the Canadian capital markets, and business corporations both private and public.

As Assistant Deputy Minister of Finance for Québec and Deputy Minister responsible for the Financial Sector, from 1988 to 1994, he was in charge of the public policy and law-making process with regards to financial institutions, securities, financial services and labor-sponsored investment funds. From 1995 to 1999, he chaired the Commission des valeurs mobilières du Québec (CVMQ). He is notably a member of the Board of Directors of the TMX Group Inc., the public corporation that operates the Toronto Stock Exchange (the senior stock market of Canada), the Montreal Exchange (the Canadian market for standardized derivatives) and the TSX Ventures Exchange (the Canadian Market for small and medium size companies), and of the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).

The name of Jean Martel will now be added to the nine other Lavery lawyers who have previously received the same honour: Ann Bigué, Pierre Bourque, Jules Brière, Raymond Doray, J. Vincent O’Donnell, Odette Jobin-Laberge, Louis Payette, Jean Saint-Onge and Michel Yergeau.