BIOGRAPHY

Drawn to the law from a natural instinct for advocacy and justice, and raised with the family motto of “Feray ce que diray” (Will do what I say), Christian is known for a straight-forward and transparent approach with both clients and adversaries.

A francophone native raised in Canada’s first bilingual town of Grand Falls/Grand-Sault, Christian has garnered significant experience in public law involving both administrative and constitutional litigation matters, and he has developed a solid reputation for his efforts and successes in advancing language rights amongst government and institutional clients. In addition, Christian maintains a commercial litigation practice including insolvency, bankruptcy, restructuring, and construction law.

As past President and Bâtonnier of the Law Society of New Brunswick, Christian is an active member of the legal, business and volunteer communities, often sought after for governance related advice on ethical matters, codes of conduct and policy and other related issues.

An epicurean, fisherman and avid traveler with a spirit for adventure, Christian brings the same passion to his legal practice as he does to his personal pursuits, and works to provide his clients with a high level of personalized service and quality legal work.

EXPERIENCE

Christian has participated in a number of important constitutional challenges dealing with various sections of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, namely fundamental freedoms (sec. 2), democratic rights (sec. 3 of the Charter), mobility rights (sec. 6), right to equality (sec. 15), language rights (sec. 16 to 20) and the minority education rights (sec. 23). He has been involved in complex litigation affecting the management of public resources such as Atlantic fisheries, Native Rights cases and in matters relating to law enforcement officials. Given his experience, various governments have and continue to call upon Christian’s services to defend impugned legislation in various constitutional litigation matters. The work done by Christian in the field of constitutional law has allowed him to appear at all court levels in Canada, including a number of occasions in the Supreme Court of Canada with his first appearance in 1999 while he was only in his 2nd year at the Bar.

COMMERCIAL LITIGATION

Christian has extensive experience in an array of commercial disputes, including acting as counsel in complex commercial litigation matters, contract interpretation and enforcement issues, creditors’ rights and relief cases, debt collection, security enforcement, and banking law issues. Christian’s professional involvement and experience range from providing legal opinions at the early stage of commercial disputes to bringing actions to suit. In addition to bankruptcy and insolvency law (ranging from proceedings under the BIA, PPSA, FDMA and CCAA), Christian also provides advice and litigates in the field of construction law, from the placement of mechanics’ liens to bonding litigation.

Christian continues to provide quality assurance services in various complex corporate and commercial transactions, namely in the field of restructuring and refinancing. He also provides legal opinions on a plethora of governance issues and in the area of directors’ responsibility and liability to various “for” and “not for” profit corporate organizations.

INDUSTRY RECOGNITION & AWARDS

  • Recognized by Benchmark Litigation as a preeminent litigation practitioner in Canada in the areas of Administrative, Constitutional, General Commercial and Insolvency
  • Recognized in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as a leading practitioner in Corporate Commercial Litigation
  • Listed as a leading practitioner by the publication The Best Lawyers in Canada for his practice in the area of Appellate Practice

LANGUAGES

  • English
  • French

LAW SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS

  • Association des juristes d’expression française du Nouveau-Brunswick
  • Canadian Bar Association
  • Law Society of New Brunswick

BAR ADMISSION

  • New Brunswick (1997)

LAW SCHOOL

  • Université de Moncton

EDUCATION

  • Université de Poitiers, France (1992-1993)
  • Université de Moncton (B.A. 1993)
  • Université de Moncton (LL.B 1996)

LECTURES & PRESENTATIONS

  • Appeared as expert witness at the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, 40th Parliament, 2nd Session, on Bill C-232 (June 2009)

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES & AFFILIATIONS

  • President – Law Society of New Brunswick Council (2018 – 2019)
  • Founder and Mentor – Patrick Albert Mentoring Program on Entrepreneurship at the Centre Assomption de recherche et de développement en entrepreneuriat (CARDE) (2015-)
  • Member – Moncton Area Lawyers Association
  • Past President – French Speaking Common Law Members Conference, Canadian Bar Association (National Level)
  • Past President – Committee for Legal Services, Association des juristes d’expression française du Nouveau-Brunswick
  • Past Vice President – Law Society of New Brunswick Council (2017 – 2018)
  • Christian also offers his continued services to the Faculty of Law of the Université de Moncton to assist in providing litigation training to students at the trial and appellate levels in various moot court and intensive trial advocacy programs.