Discover the board of directors of Legal Aid Montreal | Laval

Me Magali Fournier

Me Magali Fournier is a civil, commercial and intellectual property litigation lawyer. She is a seasoned lawyer and formidable speaker. Me Magali Fournier has represented clients in important high profile cases. A leader in her field, she is called upon to represent her clients before all judicial bodies in Québec and certain administrative instances.

Me Fournier has also devoted herself to her professional order. President of the Bar of Montréal in 2015-2016, she was president of the Young Bar of Montréal in 2003-2004. Member of the General Council of the Bar of Québec from 2012 to 2015, she was appointed as a member of the governance and ethics committee in addition to being a member of the « comité des requêtes » to this day. SHe has also devoted herself to numerous other committees of the Bar of Montréal and the Bar of Québec.

In 2018,she received the Bar of Montréal’s Pierre Fournier prize, an award for exceptional contribution to the Bar of Montréal. Also in 2018, Me Fournier became a Lawyer Emeritus, a distinction which aims to recognize excellent lawyers with exemplary backgrounds and which highlights an exceptional career.

M. Benjamin Prud'homme

Master Prud’homme holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Montreal. He was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 2013 and practiced litigation with the firm Robinson Sheppard Shapiro until 2018, specializing in family law and human right.
In 2018, Master Prud’homme left the practice of law to become successively an advisor to the Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General of Canada, the Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould and David Lametti. From March 2019, he served as an advisor to the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, then Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, on human rights and multilateral relations. Since January 2020, he has been the Executive Director A.I. for Humanity at Mila – “Institut québécois d’intelligence artificielle.”

In recent years, Master Prud’homme has served as a director of several non-profit organizations and co-founded the organization Québec inclusif. He also taught at Concordia University and is the author of publications on family law, human rights, interdisciplinarity and the sociology of law.

Me Simone Bonenfant

Member of the Quebec Bar since 1997, Me Simone Bonenfant worked for several years in private practice. Specialized in administrative law, she has been involved in advocating for rights of injured workers, highway accident victims and victims of crime.

She joined the National Bank of Canada as an expert and became director of employment relations with a specific interest for the settlement of disputes. She then specialised in operations and acquired a great expertise in the management of call centers. She has deeply developed her knowledge in process improvement and efficiency.

Since 2017, she works Ville de Montréal’s Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie borough, in the Administrative Services and Registry department, as the Director of citizen relations. She is responsible for the continuous improvement program.

Dr. Régine Debrosse

Dr. Régine Debrosse is Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at McGill University. A second-generation Haitian immigrant who grew up in Canada, she obtained her MSc and PhD in Experimental psychology at McGill University, with a focus on race/ethnicity, culture, as well as self and identity. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University, jointly appointed at the Department of Psychology and the School of Education and Social Policy, first as a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow and eventually as a William T. Grant Foundation postdoctoral fellow.

Régine Debrosse’s research focuses on how Black, Indigenous, and people of color navigate contexts that were not designed with them in mind—including how they negotiate complex and at times conflicting identities and how their connections with each other can provide support. In doing so, she partners with communities of color to develop tools and programs that leverage their strengths to improve their odds and ability to flourish, at both individual and collective levels.

Me Lucie Joncas

Master Lucie Joncas has been in private practice for 25 years in the fields of criminal, penal and health law. She has appeared before all levels of court in Quebec and Ontario as well as the Supreme Court of Canada. She has also acquired significant experience in jury trials, complex and lengthy cases.

Master Joncas represents individuals, companies and associations in connection with criminal and penal proceedings of all kinds. In 2017, she acted as lead prosecutor for the Commission of Inquiry into the Protection of Journalistic Sources. She was previously appointed as an ad hoc prosecutor at the dpcp in an independent investigation.

She has served as President of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and as President of the Quebec Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers (AQAAD). She has been a member of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers since 2005 and has been involved in several committees of the Quebec Bar including the Criminal Law Committee and the Justice and Mental Health Committee.

She has been participating in the Bar of Montreal’s mentoring program for over ten years, working with young women lawyers in criminal law.

Master Joncas has given many conferences in Canada and abroad in the field of mental health and criminal law. She also taught at the Quebec Bar School in Montreal for more than 10 years.

M. Jacques Labelle

Mr. Jacques Labelle is a seasoned communicator who has contributed to the advertising success of large Canadian companies. His work has won numerous awards at international competitions. He is now a business development partner at Coyote audio, a company dedicated to growing podcasts in Quebec, for both organizations and businesses.

He holds an arts degree from Laval University and followed the Program for Management Development from Harvard University.

During his career, he was Creative Director of Cossette Communication, founding partner of Ricochet branded content and CEO of Saint-Jacques Vallée Y&R. He sits on the board of directors of the Refuge des jeunes de Montréal Foundation.

M. Philippe Lesiège.

A member of the “Ordre des Comptables Professionnels Agréés du Québec” since 2014, Mr. Philippe Lesiège has been working at the National Bank for over 15 years. Having evolved within the Finance sector, he held the positions of Strategic Initiatives Advisor and then Director of Accounting Systems where he developed an expertise in data governance and the evolution of financial systems.

Actively involved in his community and business, he has served as Treasurer on the Board of Directors of the “Centre de la petite enfance de St-Luc” since 2018 and has served as President on several social committees and corporate events.

Ms. Dinah Morency

Ms. Dinah Morency is an executive in the Quebec public service. An accountant by training, she obtained her bachelor’s degree in 2012. Passionate about management and the development of everyone’s full potential, she subsequently completed a certificate in management and a graduate program in human resources management.

She is also interested in organizational ethics. She is involved within her organization in order to contribute to collective reflections that can lead to best practices.

She finds it important to get involved in her community with causes that are close to her heart. She is one of the thirty ambassadors of the 2021 cohort of the Groupe des Trente. This is an initiative of Concertation Montréal aimed at showcasing models of success and inspiring members of ethnocultural communities to take an interest in governance issues and to sit on boards of directors.

She served for nearly ten years, including two as president, on the board of directors of an organization serving the community, the Bureau de consultation jeunesse. In the spring of 2021, she joined the board of directors of the Alliance des cadres de l’État.

Me Claudel Nepton

Me Claudel Nepton is a member of the Quebec Bar bar since 2017 and practices as a criminal and penal defense lawyer at Shadley Bien-Aimé. She is a Pekuakamiulnu from the Ilnu First Nation of Mashteuiatsh and grew up in the greater Tiohtia:ke (Montreal) area. She sits on various committees related to Indienous issues and is a member of the Board of Directors of Native Montreal.

Me Nepton holds a Bachelor of Law degree and a degree in Indigenous Studies from the University of Quebec in Montreal. She is currently completing, on a part-time basis, her Master degree in Law on Indigenous legal traditions in a perspective of self-determination and the creation of independent criminal justice systems. Her project is developed in partnership with her community and focuses on the management of violence and conflict among the Pekuakamiulnuatsh. She is also a research assistant in the Tan tshe eishi nashekanitsh ka ui pukuhutishuanuatsh Pekuakamiulnuatsh project – towards a Pekuakamiulnuatsh constitution.

Mrs. Christiane Ouellette