Richard Owens

Expert Overview

Richard Owens is a Munk Senior Fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and a lawyer who has specialized in business and commercial law, regulation of financial institutions, intellectual property and technology.

He has served financial services providers, technology companies, drug companies and others in Internet, technology, intellectual property strategy and patent law, M&A, outsourcing, strategic alliance and joint ventures, licensing and other areas. He has been repeatedly recognized as among Canada’s best lawyers in technology law and attained the highest rating on Martindale Hubbell.

He conducted his practice with three of Canada’s leading law firms. Richard is past chair of the board of directors of the University of Toronto Innovations Foundation, and member of the advisory committee to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. He is a member of the board of the Center for Innovation Law and Policy at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and served as a director of the International Technology Law Association.

He is on the boards or advisory boards of other companies and not-for profit enterprises. Richard is an adjunct professor, teaching courses on the law of information technology and electronic commerce, innovation law and policy, intellectual property, digital content and the creative economy, and the law and policy of biotechnology, all at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, where he has taught for over twenty years and also served as the Executive Director of the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy.

Richard has written and published widely on intellectual property law, the law of information technology, privacy, and the regulation of financial institutions.