L. Michel Huart

L. Michel Huart joined the firm in 2006 following a lengthy career in the railway industry, where he held the position of General Counsel for Canadian National.

He was Solicitor for the Canada Labour Relations Board and for the Canadian Transport Commission before joining VIA Rail following its creation in 1978. At VIA, he was Solicitor and Deputy General Secretary until 1984, when he became VIA’s General Superintendent, Transportation, for Quebec. He later held the position of Director, Internal Audit and Special Examination.

Recruited by CN in 1989 as Legal Advisor, Michel went on to become General Counsel. In this capacity, he was in charge of legal issues related primarily to Operations, Marketing, Environment and Risk Management for Canada. He represented CN before the Canadian Transportation Agency and the Federal Court of Appeal. He also appeared before a number of judicial review bodies to challenge decisions by health and safety officers and Transport Canada officials. On behalf of CN, he presented its views with respect to the proposed revision of the Railway Safety Act to the Standing Committee on Transport.

Through these various positions, Michel gained solid expertise in transportation law at both the contractual and regulatory levels. He has also been involved in a number of binding arbitration and mediation cases.

Michel has extensive experience in the management of projects for which environmental approval or environmental impact assessments are required, and has shepherded many such applications through the regulatory approval process. He has also been involved in environmental incident management and environmental assessments.

For several years, he gave a 45-hour course on environmental legal issues and environmental assessments at the continuing education department of the École Polytechnique in Montréal.