François Baril

François Baril is a partner in Gowling WLG's Ottawa office. His practice is focused on litigation, with an emphasis on health care, including professional liability, professional discipline and regulatory issues.

François also practises in the area of competition law. He advises both foreign and Canadian clients on all aspects of competition law, including merger clearance, distribution issues, pricing issues, investigations and enforcement actions. He also regularly provides compliance training to corporations and "Canadianizes" clients' existing codes of conduct and compliance policies.

François has appeared before a number of different courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal, the Tax Court of Canada, all levels of the Ontario Court, the Yukon Supreme Court and Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories. He has also appeared before a number of federal and provincial administrative tribunals. His trial experience includes civil jury and non-jury cases, as well as criminal cases and arbitrations before the International Chamber of Commerce.

François has been with Gowling WLG since his time as an articling student in 1997, aside from a period in 2003-04 when he took leave to work for a large U.S. firm in Washington, D.C. During that time, he acted for Canadian softwood lumber producers and other international clients involved in trade litigation with the U.S. He returned to Gowling WLG in the fall of 2004.

François was an instructor at the Law Society of Upper Canada Bar Admission Course for several years. He is a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa, where he teaches competition law and lectures on trial advocacy. François is the president of AJEFO (Association des juristes d'expression française de l'Ontario) and is the past president of the Vanier Community Service Centre.

François practices in both English and French. He was recognized as a competition law "Future Star" in Benchmark Canada 2014 and has been listed repeatedly in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory in the area of medical negligence.