Sannie Dumouchel has won back pay from disgraced Montreal lawyer Claude F. Archambault, for whom she briefly articled three years ago, but is now queued behind a long line of creditors in an attempt to collect any of that money.
Quebec Court Judge Jean Keable on Dec. 9 ruled in Dumouchel’s favour and ordered Archambault to pay her $1,446.50 in owed salary and interest for having interned at his firm between April 30 and May 29, 2007.
As of press time, she hadn’t received a cent and the lawyer from the provincial Labour Relations Board who represented her isn’t optimistic.
“I doubt we’ll see any money,” Mathieu Yanire told
Canadian Lawyer 4Students. “We’re about the 28th creditor on the list.”
Archambault owes a reported $1.6 million to other ex-employees, partners, and tax authorities — including approximately $835,000 to Revenue Canada alone.
Dumouchel, 31, currently works for Transport Quebec’s auto insurance board. She didn’t return calls to the magazine.
Meanwhile, high-profile Archambault is still awaiting what sanction he’ll receive after being found guilty last September by the Barreau du Québec’s disciplinary committee of 111 counts of appropriating funds and failing to place clients’ money in trust funds.
