What was your path into law and onto the bench?

I was admitted to the Barreau du Québec in 1981, after which I practiced civil and commercial litigation with a number of different law firms. I’ve always derived enormous satisfaction from building relationships of trust to help my clients solve their problems. Finding positive solutions to conflicts is what drives me in my work and representing my clients in court was just one way to do that.     

After 27 years of private practice, it was time for a career change. I made a deliberate choice to apply for a judgeship with the Court of Quebec, a provincial court with a highly diverse jurisdiction. The Court of Quebec covers a lot of legal ground, including general civil law, small claims, administrative law and taxation law. I was drawn to the eclectic jurisdiction, and it did not disappoint. I loved the diversity and complexity of the cases before us and enjoyed the versatile approach we took to them. I was active in court life in a number of positions: I was the judge responsible for the professional development program for the court’s judges, I acted as the coordinating judge of the Administrative and Appeal Division, I sat on tax law professional development committees. In fact, I sat on many committees. With all of these extracurriculars, you know I was never bored at work. I have always seen being a Court of Quebec judge as an incredible privilege, and I will always be thankful to our society for entrusting me with such an important position.

What experience in your legal career best prepared you for your work on the bench?

If the question didn’t specifically ask about an experience in my legal career, I would not have thought twice before answering that having three children was the experience that best prepared me for my work on the bench. Raising children encourages you to find ways to handle conflict with a mix of authority and empathy. It forces you to be open, to encourage dialogue and to make decisions that will ultimately restore harmony. But since the question was about my legal background, I will say that preparing students for the Bar exam and giving lectures helped me develop a clear mind, present complex issues with ease, identify the essential parts of the message I am trying to convey, and find the best way to get it across. I have found this agility in organizing information and finding the guiding principle in my reasoning particularly useful when writing decisions.