Yves Cousineau

Lawyer, Partner

Language

English, French

Office

Montréal

LinkedIn

 

Yves Cousineau is a Partner in our Insurance Law Group. His practice focuses on insurance law, professional liability, product liability, and the liability of directors and officers.

Me Cousineau has played a key role in the development of our Insurance Law Group and has been a member of the firm’s Management Committee for over 30 years.

His practice covers the entire scope of tort law, and he has managed cases involving matters as varied as:

  • Construction defects, structural collapses, soil collapses, latent defects, etc.
  • Snowmobile accidents
  • Product liability for products such as spas, elevators, fireplaces, meat grinders, artificial hearts, cochlear implants, plumbing equipment, etc.
  • Fires
  • The professional responsibility of insurance brokers, accountants and auditors, real estate brokers and agents, building inspectors, etc.
  • The liability of school boards, including claims before Quebec’s Human Rights Commission
  • Loss of future income caused by bodily harm
  • Loss of operational profits caused by material damage
  • Personal injuries, including quadriplegia
  • The interpretation of insurance policies and coverage clauses

Honours

  • Rated as “Repeatedly Recommended” by Lexpert in the Commercial Insurance Litigation category
  • Best Lawyers in Canada: recognized as an expert in insurance law (since 2006), product liability law (since 2024), and director and officer liability practice (2025)
  • Awarded the Institut d’assurance de dommages du Québec’s first-ever merit prize in acknowledgment of his decade-long involvement with the organization (1999)


Associations

  • Fonds d’assurance responsabilité professionnelle du courtage immobilier du Québec: Board of directors (2011–2014)
  • Institut d’assurance de dommages du Québec: member of the Seminars Committee for over a decade, including five years as Committee President

 



Publications and Conferences

Yves Cousineau is a co-author of:

  • Commercial Insurance Policies, Annotated, Thomson Reuters / Carswell, 1996 (looseleaf with continuing updating)
  • Residential Insurance Policies, Annotated, Thomson Reuters / Carswell, 1994 (looseleaf with continuing updating)

He has spoken frequently before the Damage Insurance Institute of Quebec, the Canadian Association of Insurance Claims Directors, the Quebec Independent Insurance Adjusters Association, the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada, the Canadian Bar Association, and numerous insurers.

He has also collaborated on the Revue des experts en sinistre du Québec and This Week in Business, a weekly periodical.



Community Involvement

  • St-Joachim Parish, Pointe-Claire: Past member of the Conseil de fabrique
  • Beaconsfield Minor League Hockey Association: Past director
  • Les Productions Nathalie Gauthier Inc. (“Kids in action theater company”): Past director
  • Beaconsfield Community Association: Past director


Education

Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.)

Université de Montréal

1972


Call to Bar

Quebec

1974