Allan Ritchie 2020 Recipient of OBA's Lauren D. Rachlin Award for Excellence in International Business Law

Congratulations to Managing Partner Allan Ritchie on being named the recipient of the Ontario Bar Association's 2020 Lauren D. Rachlin Award for Excellence in International Business Law.

This award is given once every two years to a member of the OBA who has made significant contributions to international business law and demonstrated a passion for furthering international cooperation among lawyers across the globe.  The selection committee noted Allan’s work in the cross-border transactional arena, his leadership in LawExchange International, and his work as a board member of IMPACT.

LawExchange International, founded in 1994, is an association of independent law firms covering the world’s major commercial centres within Europe, North and South America, the Asia/Pacific and the Middle East. Our goal is simple: provide a comprehensive and seamless web of legal services to clients through access to trusted, local legal counsel across the globe.

IMPACT is a Nobel Prize nominated NGO focused on transforming how natural resources are managed in areas where security and human rights are at risk. IMPACT receives funding from government and private enterprise and supports a staff on the ground throughout Africa and the developing world. Allan was involved in IMPACT’s “Just Gold” project which is the world’s first program to successfully trace conflict-free and legal artisanal gold from mine site to export while applying regional and international standards applicable to conflict-affected and high-risk areas. He was also instrumental structuring the organization’s social-enterprise initiative, Knowledge for Impact Inc. (“K4i”). K4i is an innovation for-profit initiative, wholly owned by IMPACT, and represents a novel funding model for the NGO through data-driven approaches to supply chain management and verification in the artisanal mining sector.