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Alan M. Riddell
613.782.3235
riddella@solowaywright.com

Alan Riddell is a partner at Soloway, Wright LLP and heads our Labour and Employment Law practice group. He is fluently bilingual and practices law in both official languages. He has published, lectured and litigated extensively in the field of employment, labour law and human rights.

Alan is a native of Ottawa and a graduate of the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto (LLB, 1988). He was educated at the University of Toronto (B.A., 1984), l'Université Laval and L'Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Dip. I.E.P.-Rel.Int., 1984).

Since being called to the bar in 1990, Alan has appeared as counsel before many different administrative tribunals in the fields of employment law, labour law and human rights, as well as in a number of reported cases in the Ontario Superior Court, Ontario Court of Appeal, and Federal Court of Appeal. In 1991 and 1992, he acted served as counsel to the Deputy Minister of National Revenue on more than twenty Employment Insurance appeals to the Tax Court of Canada, where he litigated and advised on whether workers were independent contractors or employees.

During his legal career, Alan has also successfully argued several high profile constitutional and administrative law cases in the Supreme Court of Canada, including Canada's first major court decision interpreting the rights of Federal government employees under the Access to Information and Privacy Acts (Dagg v. Minister of Finance), in which he defended the access to information rights of public servants. He was also counsel before the Supreme Court of Canada on the seminal cases of Donahoe v. CBC, which established that the Canadian Charter of Rights does not override parliamentary privilege, and BellExpress-Vu v. Rex, where he defended the rights of minority language groups to receive satellite TV signals in their native languages.

Alan is the author of several published legal articles in both English and French in the fields of employment law and constitutional law, including "À la recherche du temps perdu: La Cour suprême et l'interprétation des droits linguistiques constitutionnels dans les années 80" and "Beware of Prospective Employees with Legal Constraints: The Do's and Don't's of Hiring from a Competitor". He has been a frequent speaker and lecturer at law seminars and conferences on labour and employment topics, and in the past, has also taught the employment law course for Human Resource Professionals at Algonquin College.

Alan has been deeply involved in local community affairs for a number of years. He is a longstanding member of Le Club Richelieu d'Ottawa, L'Association des Juristes d'expression française de l'Ontario, the County of Carleton Law Association and the Advocates' Society. He has also been active in the United Way and is currently a member of the Campaign Cabinet of the Queensway Carleton Hospital Foundation.