Michael L. Phelan

About Michael

The Honourable Michael L. Phelan is a former Justice of the Federal Court (retired) and Senior Counsel with Conlin Bedard. His experience spans public law and regulatory and commercial affairs, including competition law, intellectual property, Indigenous disputes, governance and land claims, class actions, transportation, environmental disputes, labour and human rights, access to information and privacy, discrimination, workplace disputes, wrongful dismissal, and trade remedies. He has dealt extensively with major federal tribunals, regulatory departments, government agencies, and legislative matters. Phelan was appointed a Justice of the Federal Court in 2003, becoming ex officio a member of the Federal Court of Appeal and, in 2004, a judge of the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada. He served as a judicial member of the Competition Tribunal from 2005 to 2012 and again from 2016 until his retirement. He has lectured and written on advocacy and competition law, has a long association with the aviation industry, and was among the Federal Court members designated to hear major intellectual property and Indigenous cases, presiding over numerous patent, trademark, and copyright matters. Before his appointment to the bench, he was a senior litigation partner and managing partner at Ogilvy Renault (now Norton Rose Fulbright Canada) from 1999 to 2003, and a partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt in Ottawa from 1985 to 1999.

Education & credentials

Law school

Dalhousie University Law School

Undergraduate

Loyola College (Montreal), B.A.