[1] A native of Champlain, in Mauricie, Carignan is married to lawyer Brigitte Binette and has three children, Jérémie, Jean-Francis and Anne-Charlotte.
Carignan has worked as a lawyer since his admission to the Quebec Bar in 1988, specializing in civil litigation, labour relations, and health and social services law.
He is coauthor of Loi sur les décrets de convention collective annotée, published by Wilson & Lafleur in 1990.
[3] In April 2008, he was appointed president of the Conseil sur les services policiers du Québec,[4] an advisory body created to advise the Quebec Minister of Public Security on all policing matters.
Carignan also played an active role in several committees and commissions in the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) and served as vice-warden of the Deux-Montagnes MRC and on the Conférence régionale des élus executive council.