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Patrick Plante

Partner

Montréal
PPlante@blg.com
514.954.2571

Expertise

Linda Latreille

Practice Assistant

Montréal
llatreille@blg.com
514.954.1905
514.954.2555

Patrick’s practice focuses on commercial litigation, including tort and contractual liability matters. With sound judgment and exceptional analytical sharpness, he handles complex class actions in the fields of environmental law, banking, product liability, consumer law and privacy.

His expertise also extends to special procedures (injunctions), transport law, banking litigation, constitutional law, official languages, administrative law and disciplinary law. In addition to his arbitration expertise, he has pleaded before all judicial bodies in Québec and taken part in the preparation of a number of cases.

Experience

  • Participates in defending important class actions, and in particular:
    • Defends the Canadian Pacific Railway Company in the class action relating to the Lac Mégantic accident (Ouellet c. Canadian Pacific Railway Company et al.).
    • Defends HSBC in the Defrance Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) fee class action (Defrance et Vaillancourt-Thivierge c. Banque de Montréal et al.).
    • Defends Google in a class action on privacy and data protection.
    • Defends Peoples Trust Company in a class action regarding prepaid cards activation fees.
    • Defends Take-Two Interactive Software, Rockstar Games, 2K and Zynga in class actions against the video game industry.
    • Defended Aéroports de Montréal in class actions relating to aircraft noise pollution and the health hazard allegedly caused by airborne nanoparticles before the Superior Court of Québec and the Court of Appeal.
    • Defended BMO in high-profile banking industry 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 Google in a class action on automatic renewal of online subscriptions after a free trial (Benabu c. Vidéotron et al.).
    • Defended JTI-Macdonald Corp. in landmark class actions against tobacco manufacturers (Conseil québécois sur le tabac et la santé c. JTI-Macdonald Corp. et al. and Létourneau c. JTI-Macdonald Corp. et al.)
    • Defended StockX in a class action regarding data breaches and price advertisement.
  • Defends Chicago Title Insurance Company in a dispute against the Chambre des notaires du Québec arising from amendments to the Notaries Act.
  • Represents and advises several entities in disputes connected to official languages issues.
  • Represents and advises airport authorities across the country.
  • 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 image.
  • 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 of the Comité consultatif pour le Québec, The Advocates’ Society

Community Involvement

  • Member of the Board of Directors, Théâtre de Quat’Sous

Awards & Recognitions

  • Recognized in the 2025 edition (and since 2019) of Best Lawyers in Canada ® (Corporate and Commercial Litigation) and since 2021 (Class Actions Litigation).
  • Recognized in the 2024 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.
  • Finalist for an Excellence Award at the Canadian Law Awards 2024.
  • 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