News

Lavery is pleased to announce that François Bélanger and Zeïneb Mellouli have been named partners of the firm. François Bélanger works with the Litigation and Conflict Resolution group. He appears before the courts in commercial, real estate and construction matters. Due to his expertise in these converging fields of law, Me Bélanger acts as advisor to a large variety of small and medium sized companies in order to ensure their legal affairs are effectively managed. Zeïneb Mellouli’s practice is focused on labour and employment law, the application of the Canadian and Quebec Charters and pay equity. She advises and represents small, medium and large private and public companies and regularly appears before both the administrative and civil courts. Me Mellouli has been actively involved in the legal community since the start of her career. She received the L’Expert Zenith Award in June 2016and was appointed to a labour standards, equity and health and safety advisory board in 2017. “The expertise and competence demonstrated over the years by François and Zeïneb in their respective practices has not only helped the firm develop, but has consolidated their position as major assets in its strategic positioning. Their appointments as partners rightfully acknowledge the quality of their work,” commented Anik Trudel, Lavery’s Chief Executive Officer.

On April 5, in collaboration with Cyclone Santé, Lavery held a seminar entitled Les problèmes de toxicomanie chez les employés : agir pour éviter le pire ! (Employee Addition Problems: Act to Avoid The Worst-Case Scenario) which took place at Lavery’s Conference Centre in Montréal. During this seminar, which was attended by close to one hundred participants, Christiane Legault, Vice-President, Corporate Health at Cyclone Santé, spoke to the participants about various drugs and their effects. Zeïneb Mellouli, a lawyer in our Labour and Employment Law Group, also discussed the practical and legal aspects of managing employees with alcohol and drug abuse problems.

Zeïneb Mellouli, a lawyer with the Labour and Employment Law group, was appointed to the pay equity and labour standards advisory committee during a December 15, 2016, meeting of the board of directors of the Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST). The committee’s role is to advise the CNESST Board of Directors and the minister responsible for labour. Click here for more information on the CNESST.

Lavery is a partner of the Panorama project, which promotes the recruitment, retention and advancement of lawyers from ethnocultural groups within Quebec law firms and company legal teams. The firm was represented by Don McCarty, the firm’s Managing Partner, Awatif Lakhdar, a partner and member of the Family law, personal law, and estate law group. The launch event, held June 9, 2016 at the Maison du Barreau, included members of various cultural communities as well as representatives and project managers of legal firms and departments. For her part, Zeïneb Mellouli, a lawyer and member of Lavery’s Labour and employment group, was involved in this committee The Panorama project is one of the seven items listed in the Barreau du Québec’s ethnocultural diversity action plan adopted in 2014 following the publication of the “Forum Project for a More Inclusive Profession” report. For three years, the firms and partner legal departments involved in the project commit to sharing best practices to achieve greater ethnocultural diversity and a true inclusion in their workplaces and in the profession. 

Lavery is pleased to announce that Zeïneb Mellouli, a lawyer specializing in Labour and Employment Law, was presented with a Lexpert Zenith Award by Lexpert Magazine at a gala in Toronto on June 20, 2016. This year’s edition celebrates lawyers whose actions have advanced diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and society at large. Ms. Mellouli is actively involved in the legal community and in the Montréal community. In recent years, she has served on the board of directors of the Young Bar Association of Montreal and has worked with the Barreau du Québec as part of an initiative to create a working group to promote diversity and the inclusion of members of ethnocultural communities in major law firms. She also contributed to the Barreau du Québec’s forum for an inclusive profession and served on the Committee on ethnocultural diversity of the Bar of Montreal. Finally, she has worked to promote the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, particularly through her collaboration with Lawyers Without Borders. “We are delighted that Lexpert has awarded a Zenith Award to a member of our firm,” declared Don McCarty, Managing Partner at Lavery. “This award recognizes both Ms. Mellouli’s efforts and the firm’s corporate culture, which promotes diversity and inclusion.” As a member of Lavery’s Labour and Employment Law group, Ms. Mellouli advises and represents public and private companies of all sizes in all aspects of labour relations. She is regularly called upon to appear before administrative tribunals and civil courts, including the Superior Court, the Court of Québec, and the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST). For further information, visit the Web site of Lexpert Zenith Award.

Lavery held the 2016 edition of its Major Symposium in Labour and Employment Law and it was a great success. About 300 people made their way to Centre Mont-Royal on June 8, 2016, to participate in the event. The plenary session was hosted by Nicolas Joubert and Guy Lavoie, partners in the Lavery’s Labour and Employment Law group. On this occasion, attendees got to participate in various workshops presented by Dave Bouchard, Jean Boulet, Élodie Brunet, Brittany Carson, Norman A. Dionne, Josée Dumoulin, Carl Lessard, Josiane L’Heureux, Zeïneb Mellouli, Véronique Morin and François Parent. Speakers addressed many different subjects, such as best practices in recruiting, in employment termination and in disability management; in psychological harassment, in pension plans and lessons we can learn about labour and employment law after forty years of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.      

In Montreal on January 26, 2016, Jean Boulet, a partner at Lavery, and Zeïneb Mellouli, a lawyer, both of whom practice in the Labour and Employment Law Group, will give a conference entitled “Recent developments and long-term prospects in labour and employment law” (“Développements récents et perspectives d’avenir en droit du travail et de l’emploi”) within the scope of a CRHA (Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines agréés) Work Relations Workshop. In particular, their conference will cover the key lessons from the Supreme Court of Canada regarding labour law and will address the issue of genetic discrimination. For more information or to register for the conference, please click here. 

On November 3, 2015, Ms. Awatif Lakhdar and Ms Zeïneb Mellouli, both lawyers at Lavery, participated in a press conference held by Lawyers Without Borders Canada (LWBC) regarding the publication of a written argument in favour of Raïf Badawi’s release that was submitted to the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Canada and the Saudi Minister of Justice on August 15, 2015 The written argument is the fruit of LWBC teamwork in collaboration with the Barreau du Québec, renowned experts in the field of human rights and Islamic law and Lavery, in particular through Ms. Lakhdar and Ms. Mellouli’s contributions to the written argument’s preparation and its Arabic translation and revision. Ms. Awatif Lakhdar is a member of the Family Law, Personal Law and Estate Law Group and, in particular, practices in private international law, and Ms. Zeïneb Mellouli is a member of the Labour and Employment Law Group and is well versed in public international law by way of her master’s degree in transnational law and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees internship in Geneva. Together, the argument and its publication constitute another important LWBC initiative aimed at bringing about Mr. Badawi’s release. The report is available for download here. Camille Gagné-Raynauld, Pascal Paradis, Ensaf Haidar, Zeïneb Mellouli, Awatif Lakhdar and Julia Poulin.

Zeïneb Mellouli, Labour and Employment Law associate at Lavery, in cooperation with Antoine Guilman, PhD candidate at Université de Montréal, is the author of a chapter in the latest volume of Cahier de propriété intellectuelle published at Éditions Yvon Blais, in May 2015. Her article, entitled “Le droit du travail version 2.0 : cinq décisions importantes en 2014” [Labour Law 2.0: five important 2014 decisions] reviews five decisions of interest rendered in 2014 in Quebec, demonstrating the technological trends in Labour Law. For more information or to order the publication, click here. 

Laurence Bich-Carrière, a litigation lawyer at Lavery, claimed the highest honours by winning the Young Bar of Montreal Oratory Competition at the Quebec Court of Appeal on June 9, 2015. This competition  highlights the qualities of eloquence, rhetoric and general knowledge of each candidate. Ms. Bich-Carrière will now have the privilege of representing the YBM at the Paris-Montreal Award Competition, which will take place during the opening of the Montreal judicial ceremonies in September, as well as the ConférenceInternationale des Barreaux de tradition franconphone (CIB) in Africa in December. Lavery also wishes to congratulate Zeïneb Mellouli on her excellent performance in this competition, as well as all of the other participants. 

Lavery congratulates Léa Maalouf and Myriam Brixi, lawyers in Lavery’s Litigation Group, for their election as members of the Young Bar Association of Montreal’s Board of Directors 2015-2016, during the annual general meeting which took place on May 29, 2015 at the Palais des congrès. This is Ms. Maalouf’s third term as administrator. For the second year in a row, the election was held electronically, and 782 members exercised their right to vote, making this board of directors the most representative to date. Lavery also wishes to highlight the excellent work of Ms. Zeïneb Mellouli, Labour and Employment Law associate at Lavery and administrator during the 2014-2015 term, for her involvement and accomplishments within the Young Bar Association this past year. Ms. Mellouli decided not to run this year to devote time to her other activities. Léa Maalouf, Myriam Brixi and Zeïneb Mellouli -->

Lavery held the 2015 edition of its Major Symposium in Labour and Employment Law and it was a great success. More than 250 people made their way to Centre Mont-Royal on April 15, 2015 to participate in this event hosted by Ms. Catherine Maheu, partner and coordinator of Lavery’s Labour and Employment Law group. On this occasion, attendees got to participate in various workshops presented by Jean Boulet, Zeïneb Mellouli, Michel Gélinas, Josiane L’Heureux, Norman A. Dionne, Nicolas Joubert, Danielle Gauthier, Josée Dumoulin et François Parent. Speakers addressed many different subjects, starting with a retrospective of decisions of interest in that field, as well as presentations regarding a variety of problems that can arise in the workplace.