Chripounoff, Stefan - Langlois lawyers

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.

Representative Work

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

Nouvelles

2013 – The Firm Names Five New Partners

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

Events

Langlois Knowledge

External Conferences

Other Events

2016 – Drafted the presentation entitled “Stanford International Bank – Cross-border Insolvency Jurisdictional Wars” given at the ABI Cross-Border Insolvency Program, New York City

2015 – Drafted the paper entitled “Overview of the new Code of Civil Procedure provisions on arbitration” presented during a CBA Quebec Branch symposium in Montreal

2015 – Overview of the new Code of Civil Procedure provisions on arbitration – CBA Quebec Branch symposium on the new Code of Civil Procedure

2015 – “Les développements récents en droit de la faillite attirent le regard” (Recent Developments in Bankruptcy Law That Have Attracted Attention) co-presenter, annual convention of the Quebec Bar, La Malbaie

2007 – Wrote a paper entitled “La clause d’arbitrage : est-ce la panacée?” (The Arbitration Clause: Is it a Cure-all?) distributed to participants at a Canadian Bar Association seminar on business law

2007 – Wrote a paper entitled “On Route Towards Litigation” that was presented to CN’s supplier management team

2007 – Wrote and presented a paper entitled “Overview of Litigation, the Plaintiff’s Perspective” for members of Business Network International, Montréal-Premier and Bus Tango chapters

2004 – Wrote a paper entitled “Rémunération du P-DG et du CA” (CEO and Directors’ Remuneration) for a conference organized by Federated Press

2004 – Wrote papers entitled “Le harcèlement psychologique au travail” (Psychological Harassment in the Workplace) and “La responsabilité des universités à l’égard des fêtes étudiantes” (Liability of Universities for Student Parties) for conferences sponsored by AON-Parizeau Inc.

Professional Associations

Member of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA)

Since 2016 − Member of the CBA – Quebec Branch’s Liaison Committee with the Superior Court

Since 2016 − Member of the Civil and Commercial Arbitration Sectoral Table of the Quebec Institute for Mediation and Arbitration (IMAQ)

Since 2012 − Member of the Executive Committee of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the CBA, Quebec Division

Between 2005 and 2009 − Member of Business Network International, Montreal-Premier Chapter

2007 – Member of the executive committee of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Section of the CBA, Quebec Branch

Since 2006 – Member of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada

Since 2004 – Member of The Bar of Montreal

Stefan Chripounoff

Lawyer, Partner