Stefan Chripounoff
Lawyer, Partner - Montréal
Stefan Chripounoff is a commercial litigation partner at the Montréal office of Langlois. His practice focuses on commercial litigation and on restructuring & insolvency. The current chair of the firm’s arbitration and ADR group, he acts in a significant number of large-scale files before all levels of the courts and arbitration tribunals.
He also practices energy law and, over the past twenty years, he advised his clients on their natural gas purchase and sale contracts and represented them in the context of complex litigations and key transactions in the natural gas industry. He has also acted in large-scale proceedings before the Régie de l’énergie and civil courts.
He chairs the executive committee of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the Canadian Bar Association, Quebec Division. He teaches international arbitration at the École du Barreau du Québec. He also contributed to the promotion of dispute prevention and resolution processes by sitting on the Liaison Committee with the Superior Court of the Canadian Bar Association, Quebec Division, as well as the sectoral table for civil and commercial arbitration of the Institut de médiation et d’arbitrage du Québec.
Education
LL.B., Civil Law, University of Montréal, 2003
Mechanical Engineering (partial), McGill University, 1999
Rankings & Recognitions
- Best Lawyers in Canada 2024
- Benchmark Litigation Canada 2023
- Benchmark Litigation Canada 2022
- Benchmark Litigation Canada 2021
- Benchmark Litigation Canada 2020
- Benchmark Litigation Canada 2019
- Lexpert Leading Canadian Lawyers in Global Mining 2018
- The Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory 2018
- Benchmark Canada 2018
- Benchmark Canada 2017
- Benchmark Canada 2016
2006-2007 – Finalist in the category “Volunteer of the Year” of the Young Bar Association of Montreal
2006 – Recipient of the 2006 Multiple Sclerosis Leadership Award
Areas of Practice
Representative Work
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Litigation – Seizure in Revendication
Urgent court proceeding on behalf of an unpaid vendor who no longer had access to the goods sold, in order to obtain an order of seizure-in-revendication allowing the seller to retake the goods wherever they may be.
Natural gas
Services de gaz naturel RBC Inc. v. 6036821 Canada Inc. (Gestion Première Alliance) et al.
Counsel for the plaintiff in a natural-gas related lawsuit involving multiple technical issues, including whether a physical “swap” (a purchase and sale transaction) of natural gas constitutes an investment contract as defined in Quebec’s Securities Act.
Services de gaz naturel RBC Inc. v. 9080-9211 Québec Inc. (Les Propriétés Victoria) et al.
Counsel for the plaintiff in a natural-gas related lawsuit against the owner of several buildings in Montreal who refused to pay its natural gas bills after the sale of the buildings, primarily on the basis that the contract at issue was a contract for services that could be cancelled at any time. The Quebec Superior Court allowed the plaintiff’s action. That decision was appealed to the Quebec Court of Appeal, which upheld the trial judgment in favour of the plaintiff in its entirety. Leave to appeal was subsequently denied by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Athena Energie Marketing Inc. v. Mehrzad Peyrow
Counsel for the plaintiff Athena in a natural-gas related lawsuit against a defendant who refused to pay its natural gas bills. The defendant alleged that in its application of the liquidated damages clause / mitigation of damages clause in the natural-gas supply contract, Athena had failed to respect its obligation to minimise its damages. The Superior Court of Quebec allowed Athena’s action in part. On appeal, the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned the trial judgment to the extent it favoured the defendant, and confirmed that Athena had, under the circumstances, properly applied the contractual provisions at issue.
GasEDI Base Contract for the Sale and Purchase of Natural Gas
Advice and counsel to clients regarding their natural gas supply contracts, such as the GasEDI Base Contract and other contracts derived therefrom.
Transfer of clientele from one supplier to another
Represented a major Quebec natural gas supplier in connection with the assignment and transfer of its clientele to another supplier.
Sale of Athena Energy Marketing to RBC
Represented the selling shareholders in connection with (and subsequent to) the sale of the shares of the largest independent Quebec natural gas supplier to a major Canadian financial institution.
Sale of liquefied natural gas in the trucking industry
Represented a major natural gas supplier in developing and preparing a standard tripartite contract for the sale of liquefied natural gas to a major Quebec trucking enterprise.
Civil and commercial litigation
CI Investments Inc. v. The Coconut Tree Holding Inc. et al.
Lead counsel to the team that allowed CI Investments to prevail in a major dispute over the application of an indemnity clause following the sale of an enterprise.
Chalets Chanteclair v. Panorama Capital Inc. et al.
Counsel for the defendants in connection with multiple proceedings filed against the plaintiff, contesting applications for injunctive relief and actions for damages.
Remer v. Remer
Counsel for the defendants, who prevailed in Quebec Superior Court and at the Quebec Court of Appeal, in a lengthy and complex shareholder dispute with more than $100 million at stake.
General Dynamics, a U.S. multinational corporation
Representation and advocacy in connection with a dispute over a share-purchase agreement in the arms and ammunition industry.
Piro v. Novopharm
A test case in which the issue of the constitutionality of legislative amendments in 2003 to the procedural rules applicable to the authorization (certification) stage of class actions was argued before various levels of Quebec courts.
Commercial arbitration
Commercial arbitration between a Quebec municipality and a hydro-electricity producer
Represented a producer of hydro-electricity in a major commercial arbitration following the municipality’s cancellation of the lease required for the operation of a generating station.
Manson Insulation Inc. v. Superior Energy Management Inc.
Lead counsel in a protracted arbitration involving the interpretation of various contractual clauses specific to the natural gas industry.
Canadian Royalties v. Ungava Exploration Inc. et al.
Pleaded a complex arbitration case lasting several years involving two mining companies, concerning a dispute over the interpretation and application of a joint-venture contract. Specifically argued, before the Quebec Court of Appeal, the issue of the arbitrator’s power to order specific performance by way of equivalence.
Rail transport
Major arbitration involving a rail transport corporation and a transportation agency concerning a contractual dispute.
Bankruptcy and insolvency
White Birch Paper Company
Counsel for the Provisional Administrator of seven pension plans with claims totalling approximately $400 million in the debtor’s CCAA filing.
Joint Liquidators of Stanford International Bank Limited v. Toronto-Dominion Bank
Quebec counsel for the liquidators in the multijurisdictional liquidation of Stanford International Bank and in a major lawsuit by SIB against a large Canadian financial institution.
Publications
Articles
News
- 2017 – Stefan Chripounoff Prominently Featured in an Article on Natural Gas in Magazine Les Affaires
- 2017 – Stefan Chripounoff Publishes an Article on Domestic Arbitration Law in The Lawyers Weekly
- 2017 – Stefan Chripounoff Signed an Article on Natural Gas Contracts in The Lawyers Weekly
- 2013 – Langlois Clients Win in Shareholders’ Dispute Involving a Significant Monetary Stake
- 2013 – The Firm Names Five New Partners
- 2012 – Langlois Wins an Important Appellate Case
- 2012 – Impressive Quebec Superior Court Victory
- 2009 – Important Victory in the Canadian Royalties Case
- 2009 – Langlois Secures Major Arbitration Victory for Junior Mining Company Canadian Royalties
- 2009 – Langlois Wins an Important Arbitration Case for CN
Other Publications
“Domestic arbitration law gets harmonizing upgrade”, Alternative Dispute Resolution, The Lawyers Weekly, March 31, 2017.
“Quebec natural gas contracts need work”, Energy Law, The Lawyers Weekly, January 13, 2017.
Mini-symposium “L’heure juste sur l’affaire BCE à la suite du jugement motivé de la Cour suprême du Canada : quand acteurs et institution de prestige se rencontrent” (The straight goods on the BCE case following the Supreme Court of Canada’s exhaustive judgment: when actors and prestigious institutions meet), co-authored with Vincent de l’Étoile, Point de Mire, Vol. 14, No. 4, July 2009, p. 7
“La première conférence pancanadienne sur la faillite et l’insolvabilité” (The first pan-Canadian conference on bankruptcy and insolvency), Le Monde Juridique, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2005