François is a seasoned banking and finance practitioner who excels at guiding his clients through complex and innovative transactions and finding solutions to manage legal risks.

François is a partner in the Financial Services Group in Montréal. He has over 25 years’ experience as a banking and finance lawyer covering a wide range of sectors including structured finance, securitization, project finance, syndicated lending, derivatives and financial market infrastructure.

François has broad experience of syndicated loans, inter-creditor and cross-border security issues, asset-based lending and acquisition finance. He has also been involved in a number of project financings in the mining, energy and PPP sectors.

François is recognized as a leading lawyer in the fields of derivatives and structured finance with experience relating to:

• OTC and exchange-traded derivatives
• netting and collateral issues in the context of insolvency
• structured products with embedded derivatives such as share, index and credit-linked notes
• clearing and settlement systems
• repos
• repackaging transactions
• structured credit transactions and loan participations
• advising financial institutions and pension/investment funds in the context of structured transactions driven by tax or regulatory considerations.

François is also recognized as a leading lawyer in the fields of securitization and receivables factoring with knowledge relating to several asset classes, including trade receivables, auto and heavy equipment loans and leases, credit cards and esoteric assets such as data center receivables.

François was a banking partner at the firm until 2005. He then spent several years practicing securitization and structured finance in London where he qualified as an English Solicitor. He was subsequently Vice-President, Legal Affairs, Derivatives at the Bourse de Montréal, Canada’s national derivatives exchange, where he was responsible for all legal and regulatory matters pertaining to the exchange and its clearing house, the Canadian Derivatives Clearing Corporation. While at the Bourse, François acted as lead counsel in structuring and implementing CDCC’s repo clearing platform for the Canadian fixed income market. Prior to returning to the firm, he practiced for 11 years at another leading national firm in Montréal.

François spent a number of years as an instructor at Osgoode Hall Law School where he taught negotiation skills and strategy. A popular thought leader, he has also spoken at numerous conferences and private seminars on issues relating to financial market infrastructure, project finance, derivatives, securitization and financing opinions.

François is a member of the Québec bar, the Law Society of Ontario, and a Solicitor in England and Wales. He obtained his LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1992 and his B.A. in Economics (graduating with distinction) from McGill University in 1989.