Ari Y. Sorek

Ari Y. Sorek

Partner

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Ari’s practice is primarily focused on restructuring, insolvency and complex commercial litigation. He regularly represents and advises a wide range of stakeholders, including debtors, creditors (bondholders, secured lenders and trade creditors), court-appointed officers (trustees, monitors, and receivers), financial institutions and parties seeking to invest or make acquisitions in the context of restructurings.

Ari is appreciated for his unique blend of legal acumen and rigour, combined with a pragmatic, collaborative, and commercially driven approach. He has acquired valuable experience in a wide range of industries including real estate, financial services, retail, manufacturing, gaming, aviation, telecommunications and technology.

Ari has played leading and active roles in many of the most significant and complex restructurings in Quebec and Canada, including several that have reshaped the legal and commercial landscape. In the area of commercial litigation, Ari has had the privilege of pleading two of the leading decisions rendered by the Quebec Court of Appeal involving corporate investigations and oppression remedies, among many other notable cases.

Prior to joining FFMP, Ari was a partner and the Montreal lead of the Bankruptcy, Insolvency and Restructuring Group of a major international law firm, where he practiced for 13 years. In between these ventures, Ari gained valuable experience in the securities space as a prosecutor in the litigation division of Quebec’s prudential authority and financial markets regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers.

Ari sits on the Executive Committee of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency division of the Canadian Bar Association (Québec) and on the Executive Committee of the International Law division of the Canadian Bar Association (Québec). He served two terms as member of the Montreal Bar Standing Committee liaising with judges of the Commercial Division of the Superior Court, he currently teaches evidence and civil procedure at the Quebec Bar School, has volunteered at community legal clinics, has twice acted as President of a flagship cultural festival of the Communauté Séfarade du Québec, published extensively, and is regularly called upon to speak at trade conferences. He has also had the privilege of clerking at Supreme Court of Israel.

Email: asorek@ffmp.ca

Tel: 514-932-4100 x 232

PRACTICE AREAS

  • Insolvency & Restructuring
  • Civil and Commercial Litigation
  • Real Estate
  • Securities

BAR ADMISSION

Québec, 2005

EDUCATION

  • McGill University, B.C.L. , LL.B. (2002)
  • King’s College London, LL.M. (International Financial and Commercial Law) (2025)

PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCES

  • Author, "La libération des dettes jonchées à l’intersection désordonnée du droit des valeurs mobilières et de la faillite (ou : Le législateur, ses intentions et sa grande sagesse que nous ne saurons déceler): un commentaire de l’arrêt Poonian c. Colombie-Britannique (Securities Commission)", (to be published in Annual Review of Insolvency Law, 2024).
  • Author, “Dispositions et traitements préférentiels” in JurisClasseur Québec, coll. “Droit des affaires”, Faillite, insolvabilité et restructuration, fasc. 5 (Montréal, LexisNexis Canada) (2022 - ).
  • Co-Author, “L'application des clauses d'élection de for aux contrats de cautionnement au Québec”, Revue du Barreau, Tome 80, 2022, pp 45-69.
  • Author and co-panelist, “Peace River Hydro Partners v Petrowest Corp: Opening the Floodgates for Forum Selection Clauses, or a Meandering Return to the Headwaters of the ‘Single-Control Doctrine’?” 21st Annual Review of Insolvency Law, 2023 CanLIIDocs 3085.
  • Co-Author, “Peace River Hydro Partners c Petrowest Corp: Ouverture des vannes pour les clauses d’élection de for, ou un retour sinueux vers la source de la doctrine du contrôle unique?”, 2023 CanLIIDocs 3085.
  • Co-author, “Reverse Vesting Orders: How these business structures relieve receiverships and aid asset sales”, Lexpert Legal Insights, 19 November 2021.
  • Author and panelist, “Good Faith in Insolvency and Restructuring: At the Intersection of Civilian and Common Law Paradigms, at a Fork in the Road or in a Merging Lane?”, 2020 CanLIIDocs 3598, Annual Review of Insolvency Law 2021.
  • Author, “Commercial landlords – Worried about a tenant’s insolvency? Take (letters of) credit where credit is due”, online, 13 November 2020.
  • Co-author, “Amendment to Bill 61: Québec Government announces moratorium on eviction of commercial tenants unable to pay rent as a result of COVID-19”, online, June 8, 2020.
  • Author, “BIA and CCAA Amendments: 2019 Federal Budget Proposes to Legislate on Good Faith Requirements, Directors’ Duties and Corporate Disclosure Obligations”, Commercial Insolvency Reporter, June 2019, Volume 31, No. 5.
  • Author, “Parliament Proposes Important Amendments to the BIA and CCAA on Good Faith Requirements, Corporate Disclosure, and Transparency Requirements in Insolvency Contexts”, National Creditor Debtor Review, 34 N.C.D.Rev, Vol. 34, no. 2. Also published in: INSOL International, June 2019 News Update, vol. 6.
  • Author and panelist, “Investment Protection under CETA and National Insolvency Laws -Separate Regimes or Potential for Conflict?”, Annual Review of Insolvency Law, 2017.
  • Author and panelist, “Treatment of Payment Processors in Insolvency Contexts: Critical Suppliers, Critical Creditors, or Purveyors of Conditional Credit? A Case Comment of the Decision in Re 7098961 Canada Inc (Beyond the Rack Enterprises Inc.)”, Annual Review of Insolvency Law, 2016.
  • Panelist, “Conduct Developments: Exercise of Judicial Discretion; Duties of Good Faith”, Annual Review of Insolvency Law Conference, February 2021.
  • Panelist, Canadian Bar Association, Skilled Lawyers’ Series, Commercial Insolvency and Restructuring: Essential Skills for Corporate Lawyers to Help Clients through Difficult Times, panel entitled: “Rehabilitating a Distressed Corporation: Restructuring Options under the BIA, CCAA and CBCA”, 19 November 2020.
  • Panelist, “To Supply or Not Supply that is the Question? - The Post-Filing Creditors Dilemma” 18th Annual Review of Insolvency Law, February 2020, Vancouver, Canada.
  • Panelist, “Les services de paiement par cartes de crédit dans un contexte de LACC, à la lumière des décisions dans le dossier Beyond the Rack”, Advanced conference on restructuring and insolvency, Canadian Institute, Montréal, November 2016.
  • Professional training/continuing education, “Everything you need to know before, during and after a commercial lease”, Collège de l’immobilier du Québec, 2015, 2016 and 2017.