Pierre Bienvenu, Ad. E.

Pierre Bienvenu, Ad. E. is a disputes lawyer with more than 35 years' experience in international commercial arbitration, corporate and commercial litigation, and constitutional law. He has acted as counsel or served as arbitrator in international arbitrations involving disputes in energy, transportation, telecommunications, mergers and acquisitions, construction, pharmaceuticals, international distribution and joint ventures, and foreign investment. A former co-chair of the IBA’s Arbitration Committee (2008-2009), Pierre has served on the LCIA Court (2010-2015), of which he was a vice-president, the ICC International Court of Arbitration (2015-2021), and is currently a member of the Court of Arbitration of the Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC). He was appointed by the Government of Canada to ICSID’s Panel of Arbitrators in 2021 for a six-year term.

In parallel to his international arbitration practice, Pierre maintained a busy practice as counsel before Canadian courts. He has participated in numerous challenges to the constitutional validity of provincial and federal legislation, and has extensive experience in public law litigiation. He appeared in more than 15 appeals before the Supreme Court of Canada, representing government, institutions, corporations and individuals in a range of international, constitutional and commercial law disputes, including representing the Attorney General of Canada in the landmark Reference re Secession of Quebec, the federally appointed judiciary in the Bodner case and the recent Reference concerning the Jurisdiction of the Court of Quebec, the successful party in the highly publicized Eric v Lola equality case, as well as in the recent Churchill Falls case, dealing with contractual good faith and changed circumstances. He also acted as co-counsel for BCE and Bell Canada in their successful appeal to the Supreme Court to approve a plan of arrangement for the $50 billion leveraged buyout of BCE by a private equity consortium.

Pierre intervened on behalf of the LCIA, the ICC Court and the Canadian Commercial Arbitration Centre in four appeals to the Supreme Court of Canada raising international arbitration issues, most recently in the Uber case, which concerned the application of the compétence/compétence principle to the ICC arbitration clause contained in the licensing agreement entered into by Uber drivers.

Pierre practiced for more than 35 years at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada (previously Ogilvy Renault LLP). He was managing partner of Ogilvy Renault from 2005 to 2009 and chaired its executive committee from 2005 to 2011. He served on the global supervisory board of Norton Rose Fulbright from 2011 to 2014 and was global co-head of the firm’s international arbitration practice between 2011 and 2022. He withdrew from the partnership of Norton Rose Fulbright in June 2022 and joined IMK LLP in July 2022 to focus on his practice as an international arbitrator. He is also a member of Arbitration Place’s roster of arbitrators.