Pierre-Olivier Savoie is a founding partner of Savoie Laporte, a law firm with offices in Paris, Montreal and Toronto.
A graduate of McGill Law School and a member of the Paris, New York and Ontario bars, Pierre-Olivier specializes in international commercial arbitration and litigation as well as in disputes concerning the establishment and treatment of foreign investments. He has a particular experience in financial services. Pierre-Olivier frequently appears as lead counsel before international tribunals and the French courts.
After law school, Pierre-Olivier was a law clerk at the International Court of Justice and the Supreme Court of Canada, and then a lawyer at the Trade Law Bureau (JLT) of Canada, a joint unit between Global Affairs Canada and the Department of Justice, where he was part of the Canadian negotiating team for the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). He also participated in the negotiation of some fifteen investment promotion and protection agreements, notably with African and Central Asian countries.
Prior to launching an independent practice, Pierre-Olivier was a member of the arbitration and commercial litigation groups at White & Case LLP in New York and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Paris. Pierre-Olivier frequently serves as an arbitrator in international commercial arbitrations and has been appointed by Canada to the list of arbitrators for trade disputes under the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement. Pierre-Olivier has taught international commercial arbitration at the University of Angers for several years.