About

Sonia Heyeur, Partner

A member of the Quebec Bar since 1984, Me Sonia Heyeur has developed a broad expertise in the prevention and resolution of child abduction and, over the past 20 years, in the field of international family law. For several years, she also worked in immigration law, and she acted as Immigration Judge (arbitre) from 1990 to 1992.

Me Heyeur is particularly invested in causes involving child abduction (parental kidnapping), the application of the Hague Convention, international family law and domestic family law.

Me Heyeur has spoken at several conferences for organizations including the Quebec Bar, the International Society on Family Law, the Société québécoise de droit international, the Organization for the Protection of Children's Rights and the Canadian Bar Association, always on the subjects of international child abduction and international family law.

Me Heyeur also collaborated to several publications, such as:

• La loi sur les aspects civils de l'enlèvement international et interprovincial d'enfants et son application, Développements récents en droit familial, Montréal, Les Éditions Yvon Blais, 1995;
• Le droit international privé de la famille, Développements récents en droit familial, Montréal, Les Éditions Yvon Blais, 2000;
• International Kidnapping, section on the abduction of children in Quebec, Brill Publishers, 2007;
• La médiation dans le cadre d'un enlèvement et non-retour tel que défini par la Convention sur les aspects civils de l'enlèvement international d'enfants de La Haye, Revue scientifique de l'AIFI, 2007;
• Droit international privé de JuriClasseur, published by LexisNexis, 2012 (she collaborated on section 18 about divorce, legal separation and the obligation to provide support).

Professional associations

Me Heyeur is a member of the Association des avocates et avocats en droit de la famille du Québec (AAADFQ), the Reunite organization in the UK, the AIFI (Association internationale francophone des intervenants auprès des familles séparées) and the IAFL (International Academy of Family Lawyers).

Shannon Jessop, Partner

Me Shannon Jessop graduated from the Université de Montréal in 2009 and is a member of the Quebec Bar since 2011. After articling with Me Heyeur in 2010, Me Jessop joined Heyeur Avocate as a lawyer in 2011 and partnered with Me Heyeur in 2018 to form Heyeur Jessop. Me Jessop is passionate about international and internal family law.

Me Jessop is perfectly bilingual in French and English and can communicate on an intermediate level in Spanish and Italian.

Nadine Tahan, Lawyer

Member of the Quebec Bar since 2022, Me Tahan obtained her LL.B. from the Université de Montréal in 2020. She had previously completely a Bachelor’s of Arts at McGill University in 2016 where she pursued interdisciplinary studies in Political Science, World Islamic and Middle East Studies and Women Studies.

During her studies, Me Tahan was involved in different community organisations that provided judicial information to people who were often from vulnerable communities.

Combining her interpersonal and judicial skills with her interest for international issues, she joined Heyeur Jessop as an articling student in the winter of 2022 and as a lawyer in the summer of 2022.

Me Tahan is perfectly trilingual in French, English and Arabic.