Julie-Martine Loranger is a partner in the firm’s Litigation Group in Montréal. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience, her practice focuses on class actions related to contractual and extra-contractual matters, product liability, tort, consumer protection, securities and internal investigation.

Julie-Martine has counseled and represented financial institutions, and their subsidiaries, manufacturers, distributors and vendors in complex assignments and high-profile class actions, responding to specific needs and concerns by providing clients with practical legal and risk management advice, based on their business and reputational priorities. She has experience in defending, with success, high-profile cases involving insider trading and market manipulation accusations, and leading complex internal investigations, some of which involve cross-border issues.

She has appeared before courts of all jurisdictions, including the Supreme Court of Canada, the Québec Court of Appeal, the Superior Court, and various regulators, arbitrators and mediators.

Julie-Martine is also recognized by her peers as a legal expert and skilled negotiator with a proven ability to develop strategies, excellent management skills and an impressive capacity for innovation. She is respected for her sound advice, ongoing collaboration with her clients’ internal teams and her judicious use of resources to help clients achieve their objectives. Moreover, she is one of the firm national leaders of the Crisis Law system, a solution that provides our clients with a cohesive integration of legal advice, reputation management and business priorities when they are facing a crisis.

Julie-Martine is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a prestigious fellowship extended by invitation only to experienced trial lawyers whose careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct and for which the membership cannot be more than 1% of the total lawyer population of any state or province. She is also a Fellow of Litigation Counsel of America, an invitation-only trial lawyer honorary society whose members are selected based on their effectiveness and accomplishment in litigation and trial work, along with ethical reputation. Furthermore, in 2017, she was awarded the title Advocatus Emeritus by the Québec bar in recognition of her professional excellence, outstanding contribution to the profession, and exceptional outreach.

Representative experiences in class actions and commercial litigation

Over the years, Ms. Loranger has played a leading role representing financial institutions, and their subsidiaries, manufacturers, distributors and vendors in several high-profile class actions, including matters involving:

• directors’ liability of public company and business judgment rule;

• tort and contractual liabilities, misrepresentation, limitation or exclusion of liability;

• fraud, contributory negligence and breach of the consumer protection legislation;

• pharmaceutical product liability, side effects, duty to inform and warnings, lack of sufficient indications as to risks and dangers;

• false and misleading advertising and breach of consumer protection legislation;

• safety defect of medical device, moral damages and potential HIV contamination;

• defective computer and consumer dealings;

• extended warranty, warranty of quality, illegal sales practices and consumer protection;

• security and secondary market liabilities.

Outside of class actions, Julie-Martine has handled many commercial disputes. She has represented accountants, auditors, financial advisors, architects and engineers on professional liability matters. She also handled sensitive issues proceedings on the application of the Charter of the French Language to trade-mark.

Other professional activities 

Julie-Martine is highly involved in her profession and has substantial visibility in the Québec market and legal community. She has been named among the top 10 of business litigation’s best women lawyers in Québec, published by Le Monde Juridique.

Among other professional activities, Julie-Martine regularly speaks on crisis management and cybersecurity, issues of privilege and best practices for internal investigations. She is co-speaker for a conference series on the art of negotiating with Mr. Jean Charest, former Premier of Québec.

Julie-Martine also completed the Directors Education Program of the Institute of Corporate Directors in 2008. She was appointed by the Minister of Finance to represent the interests of the consumer within the Board of Directors of the Chambre de l’assurance de dommages. She is also a member of the board of the Lise Watier Foundation, a national non-profit organization whose mission aims to empower women and girls to gain autonomy.