Our Team

Rodrigue Escayola has been practising civil litigation, in both English and French, since he joined the firm in 2004. He represents clients, from Ontario and Québec, before the provincial Superior Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, the Federal Courts, the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board and numerous other administrative tribunals.

Mr. Escayola heads the firm’s Condominium Group in Ottawa, representing condominium corporations, directors, owners and property managers. He has published articles and has been quoted in various condominium magazines and regularly contributes to Heenan Blaikie’s condominium blog CondoReporter.com. He is regularly asked to speak on various condominium issues to property managers, directors and lawyers alike. Mr. Escayola also sits on the Board of Directors of his condominium corporation.

Mr. Escayola devotes a significant portion of his practice to estates and capacity litigation, representing beneficiaries and trustees. His expertise involves challenges and interpretation of wills, contested passing of accounts, claims for support by dependants and disputes relating to breaches of fiduciary duties. Since 2005, Mr. Escayola has given countless in-depth seminars to employees and managers of various federal departments and to other professionals on estate planning and on the managing of estates. He has been asked by the Law Society of Upper Canada to speak on lawyer’s professional obligations when assisting clients with disabilities.

Mr. Escayola has also taught Civil Procedure at the Law Faculty of the Université de Montréal. Prior to his work at Heenan Blaikie, he acted as legal counsel for the Law Branch of the Supreme Court of Canada. He also served as a reservist for over 18 years and was deployed to Haiti as a United Nations peacekeeper in 1995. He retired as a Warrant Officer after having received several medals and awards.