Tel:
(514) 846-1212
Email:
rheenan@heenan.ca
Born in Mexico City, educated in Montreal, and fluent in English, French and Spanish, Roy Heenan is an internationally respected practitioner and scholar of labour and employment law and a leader in community service. When Quebec’s Labour Code had not even been in force for a decade, and labour and employment law was considered a mere branch of litigation, he co-founded Heenan Blaikie in Montreal, based on a philosophy that labour and employment law deserves to be a specialty as well as a field of study in its own right. The firm has since established offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, Calgary, Vancouver, and Kelowna. Mr. Heenan has also been one of the first Canadian labour law practitioners to recognize the growing importance of international labour law development. In this regard, he serves as a tribunal member of the Inter-American Development Bank, and a roster member for dispute settlement procedures under the North American Free Trade Agreement. In 1999, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. A Fellow of the College of Labour and Employment Lawyers, and of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Mr. Heenan is listed in the International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers among the top 15 labour and employment lawyers worldwide — the only one from Canada so recognized. An influential voice within the international labour law community, Mr. Heenan has not only been a successful and respected practitioner, but has also written extensively on labour law, and has taught as Adjunct Professor at McGill University, and as a lecturer at the Queen’s Industrial Relations Centre, Laval University, and the University of Ottawa. Still today the driving inspiration for a 400-lawyer firm, Mr. Heenan finds time to pursue a passion for Canadian contemporary painting. He has served as Chairperson of the International Historic Heritage Foundation and President of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. He has also acted as Chairman and founding director of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, and as a director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies and the Alliance for Higher Education and Enterprise in North America.
