Suzanne Sabourin

Suzanne Sabourin is counsel in the Advocacy Group of Gowling WLG's Ottawa office and plays a key role in its government affairs and regulatory practice, as well as advocacy matters generally.

Informed by her experience in government affairs, Suzanne deals with the intricacies of public law and regulatory matters.

In her public law practice, Suzanne assists clients in navigating lobbying registration requirements and conflict of interest rules at the federal, provincial/territorial and municipal levels of government. As well, Suzanne supports clients in developing policies, programs and training to ensure compliance on lobbying activities for major domestic and international companies. Suzanne represents clients in complaints before the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada and the provinces, territories and municipalities.

Suzanne provides guidance to clients on the legislative process and supports witnesses before Parliamentary committees of the House of Commons and Senate. She provides advice on Parliamentary rules of procedure to advance advocacy strategies, prepares submissions and briefs for presentations to Parliamentary committees with the aim of shaping legislation and regulations.  

Suzanne has extensive experience as well in complaint resolution, having established and advised on the implementation of national consumer complaint systems in financial/insurance services. She advises clients on consumer complaint best practices, including guiding principles, procedures, and processes.

In her regulatory law practice, Suzanne has advised foreign and Canadian companies on a variety of food related issues, including product labelling, packaging and marketing.  She has also provided advice and guidance on professional standards and regulations.

Before joining Gowling WLG, Suzanne was a member of several advisory groups, including the Industry Advisory Group to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations and the government-industry group that steered the WTO Country-of-Origin Labelling (COOL) dispute against the United States to a successful outcome for Canada. She acted as Chief Industry Liaison, enabling industry associations, to successfully advance the negotiating positions of members to government during complex bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations. She also played a leadership role in working with the CFIA and the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to develop and implement work plans under the Regulatory Cooperation Council.

Suzanne is fluently bilingual and provides legal services in French and English.