Yves Fortier (lawyer)

Louis Yves Fortier (born September 11, 1935) is a Canadian diplomat, trial and appellate lawyer, arbitrator and corporate director.

Fortier was born in Quebec City in 1935.

His father was a regional service agent for passengers on the Canadian Pacific Railway.

After Fortier earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Université de Montréal in 1955 and was considering a legal career, his father encouraged him to apply to the law school at McGill University in Montreal to improve his English.

At that time, McGill taught in English only.

When Fortier said he was worried about learning law in English, his father said: "Yves, les anglophones assis à côté de toi, ils n'ont jamais fait de droit en anglais non plus".

("Yves, the anglophones sitting beside you will have never learned law in English either.") Fortier applied to McGill and was accepted, and then successfully persuaded the McGill faculty that he should be able to sit his examinations in French.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Law degree from McGill in 1958.

While at McGill, Fortier met his future wife, Carol Eaton, who was studying for her Bachelor of Arts degree.

Her father encouraged Fortier to apply for a Rhodes scholarship following his graduation from McGill, although Fortier jokes that "Je pense qu'il voulait m'éloigner de sa fille" ("I think he wanted to get me away from his daughter").

Fortier was awarded a Rhodes scholarship in 1958, for two years.

At that time, Rhodes scholars were required to be single and to live in a college at Oxford.

He and Carol deferred their marriage for a year, with his commitment to her that he would try to get the regulation changed.

In his first major advocacy, he and some other Rhodes scholars in similar situations were able to persuade the Prefect of Rhodes House to change the rule.

He and Carol married in 1959.

The next year, he received his Bachelor of Letters degree from the University of Oxford.

Fortier insisted with his wife that their children be educated in French.

He believes that it is extremely important to protect the French language in Quebec.

Fortier keeps fit with tennis, skiing, and especially cross-country skiing.

He and his wife travel extensively.

Brian Mulroney, Fortier's friend, former law partner, and former Prime Minister of Canada, has said that Fortier was consistently considered one of the top three courtroom lawyers in Canada.

Fortier has said that he does not like being called an avocat (advocate) and prefers the term plaideur, meaning one who seeks to persuade.

One of his other colleagues has described him: "Bien des plaideurs oublient que leur objectif est de convaincre. Ils parlent fort, ils sont agressifs, mais ça ne marche pas. Yves, lui, est persuasif : il a de l'humour, des idées, du charme, il est rigoureux" ("A lot of lawyers forget that their objective is to convince. They speak loudly, they are aggressive, but that doesn't work. But Yves, he is persuasive: he is humorous, he has ideas and charm, and he is rigorous").

In 1961, he was called to the Quebec bar.

He joined the well-known firm of Ogilvy Renault, where he practised for half a century.

Fortier was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1976.

He also served as the national president of the Canadian Bar Association from 1982 to 1983.

He served as the Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations from August 1988 to December 1991.

In 2002, while serving on the board of Nortel, Fortier was the subject of a conflict of interest controversy as he both sat on the board and provided billed legal services to the company.

He stepped down from the board in 2005 during an accounting scandal.

Since becoming an international arbitrator, Fortier has developed an impressive reputation.

One of his former colleagues from Ogilvy Renault, Pierre Bienvenu, has stated that he is one of the four or five international arbitrators who are most in demand in the world.

He has been described as humble, treating junior lawyers with respect, and always willing to share credit on major files with other people who have worked on them with him.

Fortier has described himself as both a Quebec nationalist and a committed federalist.

Growing up, he saw the domination of the anglophone minority in Quebec.

For instance, his father could not rise above a certain position in his career because he was francophone.

At the same time, he rejected the sovereigntist approach of René Lévesque.

Mulroney has joked that Fortier has only one defect: being a Liberal.

In 2007, he was appointed Avocat émérite (Ad.E.) by the Barreau du Québec, one of the first recipients of the award.

In August 2013, he became a member of the Security Intelligence Review Committee and the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.