Counsel and certified mediator

Élisabeth Pinard is a counsel of the Family law, Personal law and Estate law team. She acted as the coordinator of the team from 1990 to 2017. She acts primarily as litigator in complex divorce cases as well as in private international law, inheritance disputes, and elder law. She is also a certified mediator.

Education

• LL.B., Université Laval, 1979

Significant Accomplishments

Ms. Pinard also acts as counsel to accounting and valuation firms on the legal impact of marital breakdown in matters of succession, business transfers, protective trusts, and the valuation of private corporations.

Ms. Pinard taught for a few years in the Mandatory continuing education program of the Barreau du Québec and in the law faculty of Université Laval. She is also asked to speak by various organizations, including the National Judicial Institute, the Mandatory continuing education program of the Barreau du Québec, the Chambre des notaires du Québec, and the Canadian Bar Association.

Ms. Pinard has written numerous articles on family law, estate planning and liquidation, and protective supervision. She co-wrote Législation sur le patrimoine familial annotée (4th edition, Carswell Publications, October 2003) and Procédures en matière familiale (Éditions Yvon Blais, 2001).

Representative mandates

Ms. Pinard has frequently appears before the Superior Court of Québec and the Québec Court of Appeal in divorce and legal separation cases and in proceedings to modify corollary relief with respect to child custody, support, the partition of family patrimony, matrimonial regimes, and estate litigation.

Professional and community activities

• Member of the Quebec Province Committee of the American College of Trial Lawyers, 2018-2020
• Member of the Disciplinary Committee of the Barreau du Québec
• Former member of the Mères et Monde Fundraising Committee
• Former member of the Barreau du Québec’s Mandatory continuing education committee
• Former member of the Board of Directors of Université Laval
• Former member of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of Université Laval
• Former president of the Fondation de l'Université Laval, a major university foundation in Québec
• Former president of Université Laval’s Alumni Association
• Former member of the Liaison committee of the Superior Court
• Former member of the Liaison committee of the Court of Appeal
• Former member of the Barreau du Québec’s Standing committee on family law
• Former representative of the Barreau du Québec on the Tripartite committee on advisory and psychosocial mediation services

Professional Associations
Association des familialistes du Québec
International Society of Family Law
Canadian Bar Association (CBA)


Professional Activities and Experience
Accolades

• Best Lawyer 2016
• Lexpert 2016
• Best Lawyer 2017
• Best Lawyers 2018
• Best Lawyers 2019
• Best Lawyers 2020
• Best Lawyers 2021
• 2021 CLLD
• Best Lawyers 2022
• Best Lawyers 2024

• English title
• Major Reform in the Setting and Tax Treatment of Support
• English title
• An act to institute, under the code of civil procedure, pre-hearing mediation in family law cases and to amend other provisions of the code (S.Q. 1997, C. 42)
• An Act to facilitate the payment of support (s.Q. 1995, c. 18)