Pierre Marc Johnson

A former premier of Québec, Pierre Marc Johnson, lawyer and physician, is recognized for his expertise in international trade negotiations, international partnerships, and environmental and health law. He is the Government of Québec’s chief negotiator for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union as well as for the softwood lumber dispute between Canada and the United States.

Counsel to Heenan Blaikie in Montréal since 1996, Mr. Johnson has been lead counsel and strategic adviser for international partnerships and foreign investments with respect to new information technologies, entertainment, real estate, and financial products. He also has extensive experience in international negotiations with the United Nations on environmental and development issues. He has advised the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, an international organization created by Canada, Mexico, and the United States under the North-American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, and in 2004 he chaired the Ten-year Review and Assessment Committee that oversaw the application of the Agreement for its Ministerial Council. In 2003, he chaired a similar effort for the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Co-author of The Environment and NAFTA — Understanding and Implementing the New Continental Law, published by Island Press, and of Beyond Trade: The Case for a Broadened International Governance Agenda, Johnson has penned numerous essays and articles on international trade, globalization, and the environment. He is regularly invited in Canada and overseas to counsel governments and institutions and to speak on the workings and effects of globalization.

Mr. Johnson holds an honorary doctorate from Université Claude Bernard Lyon I, France. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Grand Croix of the Ordre de la Pléiade, and grand officer of the Ordre national du Québec. He has been recognized as one of Canada’s leading lawyers in the area of international arbitration in the 2012, 2013, and 2014 editions of The Best Lawyers in Canada (Woodward/White).