Pierre Legault holds a Bachelor of Civil Law (LL.L.) and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from the University of Ottawa, and is a member of the Québec Bar. He is a respected lawyer, and a proven leader and decision maker. He is also fluently bilingual. Since July 2017, Mr. Legault has been serving as interim Senate Ethics Officer.
Mr. Legault’s legal career spanned more than 34 years with the Department of Justice, where he held progressively senior positions at the management and executive levels.
Mr. Legault served as Senior Counsel and Head of the National Capital Commission Legal Services for two years before assuming the role of Corporate Secretary and Senior Counsel and Head of Investment Canada Legal Services from 1990 until 1993.
He held a number of leadership positions during a 15-year tenure with Industry Canada Legal Services, at the time one of the Department of Justice’s largest legal services units. He was Senior Counsel and Manager of the Commercial Law Division from 1993 until 1998, General Counsel and Manager from 1998 until 2001, and then Senior General Counsel and Manager of the same division until 2002. He was Senior General Counsel and Head of Legal Services until 2008.
He served as Assistant Deputy Minister of the Business and Regulatory Law Portfolio from 2008 until 2012. From then until his retirement in 2016, Mr. Legault was the Associate Deputy Minister of Justice, the highest ranked civil law lawyer position in the Government of Canada.