Michel Hamelin is Member of the firm's Executive Committee and head of the Financial and Organizational Services (FOS). He is the partner responsible for the Litigation & Forensic Accounting and Business Valuation group. He has focused his practice in these areas since 1996.

Michel has worked on litigation mandates in both appraisal and counter-valuation in the following areas: breach of contracts, shareholders disputes, post-acquisition disagreements, family disputes, extra contractual responsibilities and insurance claims. He has also conducted financial investigations in the areas of accounting fraud, financial fraud and banking fraud.

In the course of his litigation and forensic accounting engagements, he has performed numerous financial damages quantification and business valuations, reviewed work by the opposing party's expert, and taken part in mediations, arbitrations, court cases and negotiations of out-of-court settlements. As well, he has testified as an expert witness in court and acted as an arbitrator.

Michel has led several financial investigations during which he determined the camouflage tactics used by the fraudulent party to conceal his actions, confronted and questioned the fraudster, regularised accounting records of the defrauded company and, finally, quantified the amount of the fraud.

His engagements carried out in transactional contexts consisted essentially to determine the value of companies and the analysis of investment projects for start-up companies, corporate reorganizations, mergers, acquisitions and others. He has also actively participated in several mandates that aimed to deliver fairness opinions related to financial transactions.

Michel realized mandates to determine the value of shares, assets, trademarks, intellectual properties and other intangibles of private and public companies for accounting purposes (purchase price allocation, goodwill impairment).

Michel has served a broad range of clients in the following industries: automotive, pulp and paper, metal, high technology, telecommunications, alcoholic beverages, agri-food, printing, financial services, professional services, recreation and leisure, education, health, Indian Affairs and cinematography, among others.

He has been a lecturer at HEC Montréal, since 1994, and at Rotman School of Management of University of Toronto, from 2001 to 2004. At HEC Montréal, he taught litigation & forensic accounting (loss quantification and financial investigations), finance and business valuations. In addition, he has taught the following courses several times: cost accounting, internal control and management accounting. He has also been invited by HEC Montréal on numerous occasions as an industry specialist in the preparatory courses for the Uniform Final Examination of Chartered Accountants.

Diplomas

• Bachelor of Business Administration from HEC Montréal, 1991

Professional Affiliations

• Member of the Ordre des comptables agréés du Québec (CA)
• Member of The Alliance for Excellence in Investigative and Forensic Accounting, CICA (CA•IFA)
• Member of The Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators (CBV)