Sebastian L.
Pyzik
Member of the Quebec Bar since 2014Languages: French, English, Polish
Sebastian L. Pyzik is a Partner of the firm. He is a versatile and effective litigator whose practice focuses on major, sensitive, reputational or otherwise strategic civil and commercial litigation. He regularly appears before the trial and appeal courts of Quebec as well as before arbitration tribunals. Sebastian also acts as a strategic advisor to firm's clients in litigious matters.
Sebastian represents public and private companies and their officers, directors and shareholders in complex and often sensitive commercial disputes. He also regularly acts for clients dealing with disputes in the construction and real estate sectors, including large-scale projects such as public-private partnerships. His practice extends to injunctions and urgent requests, reputational and crisis management matters and penal matters, including cases involving government entities.
Sebastian is also a recognized sports lawyer, routinely representing and advising sports federations, coaches and top athletes across the country in a variety of litigation matters, including doping, sports selection and disciplinary investigations.
Sebastian has published numerous articles in recent years, including leading articles on good faith and the implied duty of confidentiality in Quebec civil law. He is also very involved with The Advocates' Society, both in Quebec and Canada, and teaches at the Quebec Bar School.
REPRESENTATIVE MANDATES
Represented an international consortium in various litigation proceedings instituted in the context of the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), a public-private partnership project.
Represented the international consulting engineering firm Aecom in connection with the recourses instituted by the City of Montréal and the City of Gatineau under the Act to ensure mainly the recovery of amounts improperly paid as a result of fraud or fraudulent tactics in connection with public contracts.
Represented the companies Constructions Fédérales and Dev Pacifique in the context of various complex real estate and environmental disputes, involving, among others, the City of Montréal and the Ministère de l'Environnement.
Representation of brokerage firms in various commercial proceedings, including injunctive remedies involving non-competition and non-solicitation clauses.
Representation of various provincial and federal sports federations, coaches and high-performance athletes in a wide variety of sports-related litigation proceedings, including doping and Olympic selection matters before the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre (SDRCC) and in the context of disciplinary investigations or crisis management.
Representation of AppyHere, Nespa, Radar Hunter International and their directors, particularly in the context of an oppression remedy instituted by the minority shareholders.
Represented a former SNC-Lavalin executive in various disputes related to the SNC-Lavalin scandal.
Represented several business clients in defamation and crisis management matters.
Represented a widow in a life insurance case, where our client claimed the benefit of an insurance policy on the life of her deceased ex-spouse taken out in a business context. The action taken by our client was granted by the Superior Court (2022 QCCS 338).
Represented 8455716 Canada Inc. in a provisional injunction undertaken by MTY Inc. essentially to prevent our client from operating its restaurant business. The provisional injunction was dismissed by the Superior Court in June 2020 (2020 QCCS 2325).
Education
Université de Sherbrooke,Faculty of Administration, Master of Business administration (MBA), 2013
Université de Sherbrooke,Faculty of Law, Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), 2013
Professional activities and associations
Professional activities
Teacher at the Quebec Bar School, Obligations
Author for several legal journals, such as La Référence (Yvon Blais) and La Revue du Barreau
Member of the Young Advocates Standing Committee (YASC) of The Advocates' Society
Governor of the future, Quebec Bar Foundation
Associations
Member of the Advocates’ Society
Young Bar Association of Montréal
Canadian Bar Association
PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCES
Sebastian L. Pyzik and Alexandre Baril-Furino. “An Effective Dispute Prevention and Resolution Process is Key in Complex Infrastructure Projects”. Lexpert Newsletter dated July 8, 2022, available here.
Sebastian L. Pyzik and Charbel G. Abi-Saad. "L’arrêt Lac d’Amiante dix-sept ans plus tard : le traitement judiciaire de l’obligation implicite de confidentialité" (2018) 77, Revue du Barreau 467 to 528.
Chronique – Le devoir de cohérence : l'émergence d'une norme particulière de la bonne foi en matière contractuelle au Québec, EYB2017REP2123, La Référence