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Louise Otis GOQ CC is a Canadian judge, arbitrator and mediator. She is Adjunct Professor at McGill University, Faculty of Law and a Distinguished Fellow at the International Academy of Mediators (IAM). Otis is an active mediator at the national and international levels. She is a deputy judge for the Administrative Tribunal of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and deputy judge of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites Administrative Tribunal (EUMETSAT). She is President of the Administrative Tribunal of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

Early career
A native of Matane, Quebec, Louise Otis was educated at XXXXX and received her law degree from Laval University. She has been a member of the Quebec Bar since 1975.

Legal career
From 1975 to 1990, Otis worked as a lawyer in Montreal. In 1990, she was appointed a Judge to the Quebec Superior Court. Between 1993 and 2009, she was appointed a Judge at the Quebec Court of Appeal. Otis has participated in numerous judgments in civil, commercial, administrative and criminal law.

Career as a mediator
In 1997, Louise Otis instituted one of the world’s first programs of integrated judicial mediation. In Quebec, all courts and tribunals have since developed a judicial mediation program, integrated into the traditional justice system. Since 2004, at her instigation, a program of facilitation in criminal matters has also been launched in Quebec.

In March 2009, Otis founded the Canadian Conference for Judicial Mediation (CCMJ). In 2010, she co-founded the International Conference on Mediation for Justice (ICMJ).

International career
In 2007, Louise Otis was appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to a 5-member panel of independent international experts in charge of redesigning the United Nations system of administration of justice. In 2008, the panel’s recommendations were approved by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and by the General Assembly of the United Nations. In 2011, she conducted an investigation on the application of the UN Protection against Retaliation Policy by the UN Ethics Office.

In 2012-2013, Otis was appointed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an expert to review the Administration of Justice system. In 2013, she acted as a consultant for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank group, in order to assist Egypt in drafting and implementing legislation in commercial mediation. In 2014, Otis was part of a three-member expert team with the mandate to revise the administrative justice system of the World Bank. In 2013, she was appointed by the United Nations’ Executive Office of the Secretary-General as an expert, in charge of the review of the UN Whistleblowing and Protection against Retaliation Policy.

Louise Otis has been mandated by the Government of Canada to establish strategic priorities for the development of the Rule of Law in Mali. She has also participated in linkage projects with China, Russia and Haiti. Otis has spoken on Dispute Resolution Mechanisms at the Council of Europe, the Harvard University Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, the International Academy of Mediators. , the American Bar Association, Section of Dispute Resolution, the Masters’ Forum of Mediators at Pepperdine University, the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, the European Conference of Judges, as well as Brazilian judicial institutions and various other national courts and tribunals.

Honours and Awards

 * Doctorate honoris causa from the University of Sherbrooke, 2002
 * Distinguished Service Award from The Strauss Institute for Dispute Resolution (Pepperdine University School of Law)
 * Grand Officer of the Ordre national du Québec, 2003.
 * Quebec Bar Medal, 2011
 * Advocatus emeritus from the Quebec Bar, 2011
 * YMCA Peace Medal, 2102
 * Officer of the Order of Canada, 2015
 * David Plant Award for Excellence in International Dispute Resolution from the International Academy of Mediators, 2015