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But many also agree that Heenan’s excursions into Africa caused so much tension and tumult that partners began shaking their heads and taking their leave. “People like me said to themselves, ‘I want to work at a firm that values the practice of law in Canada, not international dictators,’” another former Heenan partner told the National Post. “It’s not what I signed up for.” He quit the firm last year.

There came “a point where confidence and faith started to disappear,” said Jean-Francois Mercadier, managing partner of the firm’s former group in Paris, Heenan Blaikie AARPI. “Partners started to lose any kind of faith in the management of the firm. There was a loss of trust in the partnership, and I think the origin is in the Jacques Bouchard story.”

A Montreal lawyer and registered lobbyist who acted for defence contractors and the tobacco industry before joining Heenan in 2005, Mr. Bouchard was the firm’s controversial director of international business. He worked closely with Mr. Chrétien, who joined the firm as special counsel after serving as Canada’s 20th prime minister. The pair had a history: Mr. Bouchard had worked on Mr. Chrétien’s Liberal party campaigns.

At Heenan, the two busied themselves on the firm’s new African mandate, drumming up business for clients involved in mining and energy sectors, and visiting with heads of state, including Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe.

In November 2011, the National Post revealed Mr. Bouchard’s curious freelance work with notorious international lobbyist Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence worker who has had many controversial dealings with African leaders since settling in Montreal two decades ago.