Pierre-Olivier Laporte
Pierre-Olivier Laporte is one of the firm’s founding partners. He has over 20 years of experience advising and representing international clients in varied contexts, both in disputes and in an advisory capacity.
After spending the early years of his career at Norton Rose Fulbright and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center in Geneva, Pierre-Olivier joined the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria where he served as in-house counsel from 2011 to 2015 and senior legal advisor from 2016 to 2020.
Pierre-Olivier’s practice focuses on international arbitration and litigation, including disputes involving international organizations. He has represented clients in multiple proceedings before national courts, international tribunals and arbitral tribunals.
Pierre-Olivier is an expert in the law of international organizations and global foundations, having provided advice on a broad range of legal and policy issues including host country relations, privileges and immunities, grant agreements, financing, governance, negotiations involving public and private donors, employment relations, ethics, and investigations. Pierre-Olivier’s practice in this field has allowed him to build significant experience advising clients leading projects on all five continents, including Africa where he has advised teams managing projects in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, the Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Senegal, Togo, Mali, and Morocco.
In addition to his counsel practice, Pierre-Olivier accepts appointments to sit as an independent arbitrator. He has given lectures on international administrative law at the University of Sherbrooke in Canada.
Bar Admission
Québec (Canada), 2008
Education
LLM, Harvard Law School
Hons. LLB, BCL, McGill University
Languages
English, French