Guy Du Pont is a partner in the Litigation and Taxation practices. He is co-leader of the Montréal Litigation practice.
For more than 30 years, Guy has dealt with complex and high stakes litigation involving a wide range of fields, including taxation, commercial, criminal, constitutional and environmental law as well as class actions.
Guy is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. When he was elected to the American Law Institute in June 2005, he was one of only 14 Canadians to earn this honour since its founding in 1923. In May 2008, Guy was awarded the honour of "Avocat émérite" by the Barreau du Québec.
Representative Work
- Successfully argued BCE Inc.'s appeal in the Supreme Court of Canada relating to its $51.7 billion takeover and privatization by a consortium of private equity buyers. This case relates to the largest transaction of its kind in Canadian history and is widely considered to be one of the most important commercial cases ever heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.
- Argued many leading cases in the Supreme Court of Canada in the field of tax law including Ludco Enterprises Ltd. v. Canada, Canderel v. Canada and Dunn v. Québec.
- Defended a broad range of clients in many industries in relation to investigations carried out by the Departments of Justice (Canada and Québec), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Sûreté du Québec and the Autorité des marchés financiers. These investigations have involved, among other things, allegations of criminal fraud, tax fraud, insider trading and corruption, both domestic and cross-border. Argued ten cases involving the law of search and seizure in the Supreme Court of Canada and including the only successful defeat of warrants issued against Future Electronics pursuant to the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act to assist an FBI fraud investigation.
- Led the team that successfully defeated the most important class action launched in Québec against Pharmascience Inc., Québec’s leading generic drug manufacturers. The Québec Court of Appeal unanimously denied authorization of a class action launched by a consumer advocacy group that sought $3.9 billion in damages for alleged improper pricing of medications under the provincial drug insurance system.
- Argued Concordia University's successful appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada that dismissed a class action instituted by its unions to claim hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to its employee pension fund.
- Appeared as counsel for the Conseil patronal de l’environnement du Québec before the Supreme Court of Canada in an appeal in an environmental class action and on behalf of The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in support of Wal-Mart Canada Corporation, one of the most important labour law cases involving an employer's right to cease operations even if motivated by anti-union behaviour.
- Appearing on behalf of The Globe & Mail in the Supreme Court of Canada in an appeal dealing with freedom of the press and court-ordered bans to preclude the publication of information.
Recognition
- Recipient of the 2010 Ordre du mérite from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law Civil Law Section.
- Recognized as one of the world's leading practitioners in the Business Crime field by The International Who's Who of Business Crime Lawyers 2010.
- Recognized as a leading business law practitioner in the area of Business Crime by Law Business Research's Who's Who Legal: Canada 2010.
- Recognized as one of Canada’s leading litigation counsel by The International Who’s Who of Commercial Litigators in both the competition/antitrust and dispute resolution categories and the tax litigation category.
- Recognized as one of Canada’s leading litigation counsel by Chambers Global’s The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business in both the competition/antitrust and dispute resolution categories and the tax litigation category. One interviewee commented that Guy is "... a genius who can effortlessly move from French to English, an extremely effective advocate and a superb draftsman" and peers describing him as "an extremely brilliant lawyer’s lawyer who is so bright and has such broad experience that you can throw him into any type of case and he will get up to speed on it".
- Recognized in the tax area of the PLC Which lawyer Yearbook? which describes him as "[a] highly experienced and well-regarded tax litigator".
- Recognized in Chambers Global's The World's Leading Lawyers, Leaders in their Field and Expert Guide's List of the World's Leading Competition & Antitrust Lawyers.
- Recognized in The Best Lawyers In Canada.
- Recognized in Empire Who’s Who.
- Recognized in The International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers.
- Recognized in The International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers and Economists.
- Recognized in the International Tax Review - World Tax 2008.
- Recognized in the Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading Canada/U.S. Cross Border Litigators.
- Recognized in Legal Media Group's Expert Guides to the World’s Leading Tax Advisors and Global Counsel 3000.
- Named by Lexpert as one of Canada’s top 50 counsel in the areas of international corporate commercial, class action and securities litigation and one of Canada’s top five counsel in the area of tax litigation.
- Featured in the Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada.
- Frequently recommended by the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory in Corporate Tax Litigation; repeatedly recommended in Estate & Personal tax Planning; and consistently recommended in Corporate Tax and Litigation: Class Actions.
- Recognized as 2010 Lawyer of the year – Litigation, in Montréal by The Best Lawyers.
- Awarded the highest rating by Martindale-Hubbell.
Articles and PublicationsGuy has participated in, and written papers for, numerous conferences, including the Canadian Tax Foundation, the Association de planification fiscale et financière, the Meredith Memorial Lectures, the Faculty of Law and the Department of Chartered Accountancy of McGill University, the Canadian Bar, Infonex, the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, of Québec and of Alberta.
Speaking EngagementsGuy was also a guest speaker at a conference on the introduction in France of class action legislation, hosted by the Mouvement des entreprises de France and the Chambre de commerce et d’industrie de Paris.
Guy acted as judge in the 4 ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) International Commercial Mediation Competition held in Paris in February 2009.
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