Hélène de Kovachich is a life appointed member of the Tribunal Administratif du Québec since May 2006 (chair from 2008-2013), member of the Québec Bar, a member of the Ordre des administrateurs agrees and a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators since 2005. After practicing in the field of tax law (Ministère du Revenu du Québec, Stikeman Elliott), she founded Groupe Option Médiation in 1994 and dedicated her practice to developing alternative dispute resolution mechanisms (ADR) in both domestic and international disputes. She chaired the national ADR section of the Canadian Bar Association (2003-2004) and led many ADR projects including those pertaining to the development and acceptance of the Canadian Commercial Model Law based on the UNCITRAL conciliation model law.

She participated in the implementation of settlement conferences in Québec (2000-2006) and trained judges in Canada and abroad on judicial mediation. She has done mediations and given conferences in Canada, the United States, the United-Kingdom, France, Mali, Mexico, Cambodia, Morocco and Haiti.

Co-author of the “Guide pratique de la médiation” (1997) a reference in Quebec’s mediation training courses she received an award for « quality teaching » from the Law Faculty of Sherbrooke University in 2006. She was an executive member and founder of Mediators Without Borders in 2006.

Justice de Kovachich, received a cabinet appointment in September 2016, to set up and direct a mediation clinic at the law faculty of Université de Montréal.