Isabelle Papillon

An accomplished lawyer and executive, Isabelle Papillon brings more than 30 years of experience in business law within leading public and private organizations. She has held senior legal leadership positions, including Corporate Secretary and Director, Legal Affairs, Governance and Ethics, for publicly traded companies.

Her multidisciplinary practice is distinguished by deep expertise in corporate governance, corporate secretarial matters, and Canadian and U.S. securities law. She advises organizations on regulatory compliance, governance frameworks, and the management of sensitive issues involving disclosure, compliance, and corporate ESG accountability.

Recognized for her strategic judgment and ability to navigate complex environments, Isabelle serves as a trusted advisor to executive leadership teams and boards of directors. She helps ensure rigorous processes, sound governance practices, and business decisions aligned with organizational objectives. Her experience also encompasses general commercial matters, technology and privacy, intellectual property, real estate, marketing, and e-commerce in manufacturing and retail environments across a broad range of industries, including apparel, food and beverage, forest products, wine, technology, and biopharmaceuticals.

She holds an MBA and an ESG certification, further strengthening her ability to integrate environmental, social and governance considerations into sustainable business strategies.

Isabelle has held senior legal leadership and strategic advisory roles with several major organizations, including Gildan Activewear, Resolute Forest Products, Metro, Héma-Québec, and the Aldo Group.

Throughout her career, she has played a key role alongside executive management teams and boards of directors, contributing to the development and enhancement of governance frameworks, compliance programs, and risk management practices. She has been directly involved in significant initiatives, including financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, organizational transformation projects, and the management of complex regulatory matters in multi-jurisdictional environments.

Her experience also includes overseeing continuous disclosure obligations, managing investor relations, implementing ESG strategies, and coordinating critical functions such as cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, and intellectual property.

Early in her career, Isabelle practised with Mendelsohn Rosentzveig Shacter, a business law firm now integrated into McMillan. Her practice focused on commercial and real estate law, including transactional, financing and commercial leasing matters.

• Preparation of management proxy circulars and other continuous disclosure documents, including annual and quarterly reports, ESG reports, modern slavery reports, and executive compensation disclosures, as well as the coordination of shareholder meetings.
• Review and enhancement of compliance, ethics, and traceability programs for manufacturing companies, including the drafting and revision of corporate policies and codes of conduct.
• Participation in public and private financing transactions totaling several hundred million dollars.
• Involvement in acquisitions and divestitures involving both public and private companies.
• Safeguarding the effectiveness of corporate secretarial functions and the integrity of governance practices in shareholder dispute situations, both in public companies—including proxy contests—and private corporations.
• Responsibility for privacy compliance and for developing and implementing cybersecurity procedures and policies governing the use of artificial intelligence.
• Administration of equity-based incentive plans.
• Advising on shareholder relationships within emerging technology companies.
• Management of extensive trademark portfolios comprising more than 800 trademarks.
• Development of contract templates for start-up companies.
• Design of operational strategies in highly regulated sectors.
• Strategic management and negotiation of business law disputes.