Profile: L Yves Fortier CC QC

Commercial Arbitration

Biography: Commercial Arbitration

Yves Fortier is chairman and senior partner of Ogilvy Renault. He is widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading arbitrators.

Mr Fortier was educated at University of Montreal (BA); McGill University (BCL); and Oxford University, as a Rhodes scholar (B Litt). He has received honorary degrees from eight prestigious Universities.

Mr Fortier has acted as counsel in arbitration in over 200 arbitral proceedings in North America, Europe and Asia under the rules of the ICC, ICSID, the LCIA, UNCITRAL, CAS, the AAA, the Zurich Chamber of Commerce and the Stockholm Institute. He has acted as arbitrator in ad hoc arbitrations governed by national laws and as a judge ad hoc of the International Court of Justice. He has also served as special representative of the secretary general of the United Nations. Mr Fortier has written extensively on international arbitration.

Mr Fortier was president of the Canadian Bar Association from 1982 to 1983. He was lead counsel for the government of Canada in the Supreme Court of Canada Reference concerning Quebec (1998). He was chairman of two United Nations Compensation Commission panels in Geneva in 1993 and 1998. Mr Fortier was a judge on the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Zurich, Switzerland, from 1980 to 2000. He was president of the LCIA from 1998 to 2001; he is currently honorary vice president of the LCIA. He was a member of the ad hoc Arbitration Chamber at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City in 2002.

In July 1998, Mr Fortier was appointed ambassador and permanent representative of Canada to the United Nations in New York. From January 1989 to December 1990, Mr Fortier was Canada's representative on the security council of the United Nations over which he presided in 1989. On leave from Ogilvy Renault, Mr Fortier served as Canada's ambassador and permanent representative until February 1992.

Mr Fortier has received many honours and distinctions. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1976. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada (CC), the highest level of the order. He is also an Officer of the Ordre National du Québec (OQ).