A Quebec Lawyer for Companies and Firms Based Outside Quebec

The problem this solves

Your company is based in Toronto, Boston, London or Paris. You have counsel you trust. Then a Quebec question lands: a customer contract that has to survive Quebec consumer rules, an employee in Montreal, a Law 25 (An Act to modernize legislative provisions as regards the protection of personal information) clause in an enterprise procurement form, a website that now needs French, a request from the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec (CAI).

None of that justifies opening a Quebec office or retaining a full service firm on a general basis. What it calls for is a Quebec lawyer you can reach when the question comes up, who already knows your business, and who answers in the language your team works in.

Quebec counsel for firms outside Quebec

Law firms in other provinces, in the United States and in Europe use Satoshi Legal as their Quebec correspondent. The arrangement is straightforward: you keep the client relationship, the file and the strategy, and you bring in a member of the Barreau du Québec for the parts governed by Quebec law.

Typical referral work includes reviewing the Quebec law aspects of an agreement your client is signing, advising on the Quebec elements of a cross border transaction or data transfer, confirming whether a policy drafted for another jurisdiction holds up under the Civil Code of Québec, and handling Quebec privacy and consumer law questions inside a larger mandate you are running.

Referring counsel receive work product they can put in front of their own client. Instructions come from you, conflicts are cleared before anything substantive is discussed, and we do not approach your client for other work.

What the ongoing relationship covers

Commercial contracts. Customer agreements, terms of service, licences, distribution and reseller arrangements, supplier contracts, and the limitation of liability and warranty clauses that behave differently under the Civil Code of Québec than they do under common law. Contracts of adhesion and consumer contracts carry rules that catch out documents drafted elsewhere.

Privacy and data governance. Ongoing Law 25 work: privacy impact assessments (PIA), the Privacy Officer function, consent flows, retention rules, incident handling, assessments before communicating personal information outside Quebec, and the privacy schedules in your commercial paper.

Everyday questions. The short questions that do not warrant opening a file elsewhere. A clause your counterparty just sent. A marketing campaign aimed at Quebec. A French language requirement on a product page. A question about whether a Quebec rule applies at all, where the answer is sometimes no and that answer has value.

How engagements are structured

Two patterns cover most situations. A defined mandate handles one identified question or one document, with a scope and a deliverable agreed in writing before work begins. A recurring arrangement gives you a set allocation of time each month for questions as they arise, reviewed periodically as your volume changes.

Whichever applies, the fee basis is confirmed in a written engagement letter before any work starts.

How it works in practice

You get one lawyer, not a rotating team. Requests go to a single address and are acknowledged within one business day. Work is done in French or in English, and documents can be produced in either, which matters when a Quebec facing agreement has to exist in French while your head office works in English.

Because the relationship is continuous, context accumulates. By the third question you are not re-explaining your product, your data flows or your customer base.

Jurisdiction

Erwan Jonchères is a member of the Barreau du Québec and practises Quebec law. Satoshi Legal does not provide legal services governed by the law of another Canadian province or territory. Questions arising under Ontario, federal, United States or European law stay with your own counsel, and we coordinate with them where a matter spans several jurisdictions.

Put a Quebec lawyer on your side of the table

Book an introductory call at satoshilegal.cliogrow.com/book or write to bonjour@satoshi.legal. Counsel referring a Quebec question on behalf of a client: say so in your first message and identify your client so conflicts can be cleared straight away.