Ryan J. Black

Ryan Black practises technology-related business law, with a particular focus on consumer-facing online businesses, such as video games, esports, information technology e-commerce businesses. Ryan combines his expertise in these areas with a ‎background in corporate/commercial law, including mergers and acquisitions, licensing, ‎technology outsourcing, service provisioning, high-technology employment, commercial contracting, and venture capital funding, to provide ‎clients with market-leading legal advice.‎

Ryan also regularly assists clients in acquiring, selling or commercializing technologies, ‎whether it is negotiating or drafting a term sheet or contract, strategizing with management, ‎closing a deal, or dealing with contractual issues or disputes. Ryan works with companies ‎across Canada and internationally who are developers, publishers, platforms systems integrators, consultants, and service providers, particularly in the software-as-a-service, information ‎technology, and video game industries.‎

As a former software and Internet developer, Ryan has a unique insight to emerging technology matters important to today's businesses, such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, blockchain technologies, open source software, cloud computing, and social media. Ryan is a frequent speaker and presenter on a wide variety of legal matters including metaverse and AI topics, Canada's Anti-Spam Law (CASL), video game law and policy matters, technology trends and regulations, artificial intelligence, and intellectual property issues, and also is the co-author of "Internet Law Essentials: Canada's Anti-Spam Law", published by Specialty Technical Publishers. He has also presented evidence on the topics of deepfakes and election interference to the Canadian Senate’s Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, and was an invited participant in the consultation roundtables the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s Guardrails for Generative AI Codes of Practice.

In addition to his substantial technology transactions practice, Ryan also delivers practical advice on protecting the valuable information they hold or generate, such as: protecting trade secrets or other intellectual property; responding to cybersecurity, ransomware or cyber-extortion threats; complying with privacy and other regulatory regimes, or industry standards bodies, regarding sensitive or personal information; and developing internal and external policies, training and compliance programs relating to these topics.

Ryan is currently a director of the Video Game Bar Association, dedicated to furthering the games industry and advancing the rule of law therein, as well as Vancouver Fireworks Festival ‎Society and Claren Academy Society. Ryan is also a ‎member of the firm’s National Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee. He is formerly the ‎lead Clinic Adjunct for the Centre for Business Law at the University of British Columbia Peter A. Allard ‎School of Law, and he has served as director (and Chair, Governance) of the Canadian Internet ‎Registration Authority from 2017 to 2021.‎