Hugo’s reputation is that of a talented trial lawyer and strategist with a sharp legal mind. He always delivers and often exceeds expectations. He never backs down from a challenge, whether it implies taking the lead in a highly mediatized case, or cross-examining high-profile defendants. Clients know this and feel confident in Hugo’s ability to vigorously defend their interests.
Hugo’s practice is centred around four different areas:
General commercial litigation: Hugo has handled a variety of general commercial matters on behalf of various clients of the firm. He focused on his courtroom skills very early on in his career. He is credited with over 70 published judgments (with many more unpublished), and has personally conducted and led numerous trials, including one of the largest divorce trials in the province over the last decades, if not the largest. While Hugo’s reputation is that of a trial lawyer who can adapt and argue a wide range of files, he has gained particular experience in defamation and media Law, reputation and crisis management, contractual disputes, unfair competition, and shareholders’ litigation.
Injunctions and extraordinary remedies: Hugo is known within and beyond the firm for being able to handle urgent matters and deliver quality work under pressure with great speed and confidence. This has allowed him to be involved in and be personally assigned multiple injunction matters (including requests for urgent safeguard orders), which required him to prepare and argue cases within a 24- to 48-hour window. Moreover, he has gained meaningful experience in extraordinary remedies, such as Norwich, Mareva and Anton Piller applications, in addition to CCP seizures.
Trust & estate litigation (T&E): Hugo has worked in a wide array of T&E litigation matters. These include mandates for high-net-worth individuals as well as mandates for trust companies.
Real estate litigation: In addition to the foregoing areas, Hugo has developed deep knowledge in real estate litigation, having handled various related matters over the years, with particular emphasis on disputes pertaining to servitudes (ROWs), acquisitive prescriptions, and commercial leases.