Kathleen M. Ritchie

About Kathleen M. Ritchie

Kathleen M. Ritchie is a partner in Gowling WLG's Toronto office, with a practice built on securities and corporate law. Companies, both public and private, rely on Ritchie when they're buying, selling or merging, and public issuers bring in the same partner for equity and debt offerings and for keeping on the right side of disclosure and stock exchange rules. Boards are a big part of the work as well, from governance structures to executive pay and director liability.

The story at the firm starts in 1995, when Ritchie was a student at Smith Lyons. After the 1998 call to the Ontario bar came an associate role at Smith Lyons/Gowlings, and partnership at Gowlings followed in 2006. Ritchie took on the leadership of the Corporate Finance, M&A and Private Equity Group in 2010 and became head of the Toronto Business Law Department in 2016, and has since passed both roles on. Today Ritchie serves on the firm's Board of Trustees.

Some of the most distinctive work has touched the shape of Canadian securities regulation itself. For more than 10 years, Ritchie was lead counsel to the Canadian Securities Transition Office, including on the transactional side of the previously proposed move from provincial and territorial regulators to a cooperative capital markets regulator. Ritchie has also been a member of the Ontario Securities Commission's 12-member Securities Advisory Committee, and in 2026 shared a view with The Globe and Mail on how U.S. disclosure rules compare with Canada's.

Mining is a recurring thread too: Ritchie earned a Certificate in Mining Law from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2012 and has worked on creating and acquiring mining royalties and streams. By Ritchie's own account, the most appealing files are the ones nobody has tried before, and solving problems and getting the deal done is what the job is about. Ritchie has been recognized in Best Lawyers since 2016.