Specialisation: Canadian Employment & Labour Law, Workplace Policies, Employer of Record (EOR) Compliance, Cross-Border Employment
Olivia Girouard is Of Counsel at Littler Mendelson, the world’s largest employment and labour law firm, based in the firm’s Montréal office. She advises clients in both English and French on a broad range of workplace matters, including the development of workplace policies and employment contracts, workers’ compensation, workplace health and safety, terminations and disciplinary actions, discrimination complaints, and psychological harassment.
At Employsome, Olivia contributed to a Expert Spotlight Series “Hiring in Canada Through An EOR“. She brings a rare dual perspective to the topic, having previously served as employment counsel inside a global EOR provider before moving to private practice.
Background
Olivia holds a J.D. from the University of Sherbrooke (2016) and an LL.L. from the University of Ottawa (2014). She is admitted to the Québec Bar.
Her career spans both in-house and private practice perspectives on employment law. Before joining Littler, she served as employment counsel inside a global Employer of Record (EOR) provider G-P, where she worked on the compliance infrastructure that underpins international hiring arrangements. That experience is reflected in her current advisory work: Olivia is one of very few employment lawyers in Canada who has seen EOR structures from both sides, inside the provider building the framework and in private practice advising the companies that rely on them.
Prior to Littler, she spent over six years in private practice at a Montréal-based law firm across a broad range of labour and employment legal matters, and served as a lecturer at École de technologie supérieure in Montréal from 2021 to 2024, where she taught courses on health, safety, and personnel management. She joined Littler in August 2025 as part of the firm’s expansion into Québec, which established Littler’s dedicated presence in the province.
Her practice covers the full range of employment law matters that foreign companies face when hiring in Canada: employment contracts, workplace policies, terminations, provincial compliance obligations, and the legal considerations around Employer of Record (EOR) structures and contractor vs. employee classification.
