Critical Thinking. Dynamic Approach. Practical Solutions.
About Us
Pelletier Litigation is proud to be an independent Calgary litigation boutique. Our focus includes a broad range of corporate and commercial dispute resolution and we are focused on serving the diverse needs of our corporate and individual clients in and around Southern Alberta. Deeply rooted in Calgary and its business community, we understand the culture and workings of doing business in Calgary. We are committed to achieving the right practical solutions for our clients and their companies.
By the very nature of commercial litigation, matters are often interconnected to a number of practice areas. As a result, our expertise and experience includes areas such as fraud investigations and remedies, real estate and construction, wills and estates and investments which often cross over to other tangentially-related practices such as employment law, oil and gas, defamation and estate law. For instance, an employee theft matter often includes fraud, wrongful dismissal and corporate law whereas a shareholder dispute could involve corporate, employment and in Calgary, oil and gas law.
We have an established track record of successfully appearing before all levels of court in Alberta and British Columbia, as well as the Federal Court of Canada and in response to application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Our Story
We are independent by design. Trained at and grounded in the best practices of large full-service law firms, we chose the less conventional route. Being independent, we are unencumbered by the bureaucracy, cost structure and conflicts of large national and global firms. We are free to handle a wide range of legal matters and are poised to serve as conflict counsel. We have the freedom and flexibility to best meet companies’ needs for practical solutions, delivered cost-effectively, efficiently and expediently. We are not beholden to any outdated conformist legal culture that perpetuates doing things the same old ways.
We are free to challenge convention and to introduce improvements that will benefit our clients. We are creating a litigation boutique that is driven by integrity, unconventional thinking and practical solutions and founded on a culture that is client focused, approachable, collaborative and respectful.
Our Guiding Principle
Pelletier Litigation’s business philosophy is founded on a core guiding principle that is also our promise to our clients:
Success means achieving the right practical solutions for our clients, not the best opportunity for us.
We stand by our promise and strive to “walk the talk” every day. It’s our modus operandi. And it’s the reason that most of our clients are repeat clients including returning companies, client referrals and other legal counsel from across North America.
Our Approach
The Standard Approach
Critical thinking is one of the cornerstones of legal training and the discipline of law. It involves identifying facts and making decisions based on the skillful and non-judgmental process of analysing, synthesising, and evaluating information collected through observation, experience, reflection and reasoning. It is a focused and precise process that yields a deep but narrow understanding. It leads to logical solutions that are typically more predictable.
Being conventional and thinking “inside the box” is often a disadvantage to clients in negotiations and litigation.
Our Comprehensive Approach
At Pelletier Litigation, we use a comprehensive two-stage approach to problem solving. We start with critical thinking based on deductive reasoning to get a deep understanding of the situation. We then round out our process with lateral thinking as part of a dynamic approach, examining the situation from a broader scope and context. The combination of “logical and creative” thinking multiplies the possibilities for practical solutions that are right for clients.
Being practical but also thinking dynamically gives clients an edge and more leverage in negotiations and litigation.
For us, dynamic thinking includes knowing the technical rules of law as well as the practical applications … and when to focus on which to achieve the right outcomes for clients.
That means being able to see “the trees for the forest”; identifying real opportunities and maneuvering accordingly to stay on course and recognize that not all “wins” and “losses” are what they might seem to be.
When a win isn’t the right outcome for the client: We believe determining the position for a trial at the outset of litigation – and staying the course – is critical to securing the right outcome for clients. Without this, clients often get side tracked and focused on a series of smaller victories on procedural or technical points and not realize that they are only “winning” the right to pay substantial legal fees to address non-strategic points that won’t significantly improve their position at trial or contribute to resolving the dispute.
When a loss is actually a win: At Pelletier Litigation, we are focused on the bigger picture and recognize there may be a number of paths to achieving the right solution for clients. Understandably, clients tend to lose sight of the possible range of outcomes available from a Statement of Claim or an Application such that often one or both of the parties will narrow their view of the possible outcomes.
For us, this is an opportunity in which we’re adept at manoeuvring within the broad range of these possibilities to achieve a result that is actually in the better interest of our client. Occasionally this results in a successful outcome for the client who otherwise appears to “lose” the Action or the Application. Some examples include Receivership or Bankruptcy Orders which require the Applicant to engage outside parties or experts to otherwise substantiate the respondent’s case, or Court Orders undoing or rescinding purchase agreements and returning the parties to their original positions prior to the sale negotiations in the first place.
