Ritchie, a 2024 Top 25 and Managing Partner of the Year winner, will move to strategic role as chair
Loopstra Nixon LLP has announced new leadership. Peter Saad will replace Allan Ritchie as managing partner. Ritchie will transition into a strategic role as its chair, reflecting the law firm’s plans for significant growth.
Ritchie was named a Top 25 Most Influential Lawyer in 2024 and was a co-winner of the Managing Partner of the Year recognition at the 2024 Canadian Law Awards.
Saad, who joined the firm as a partner in 2021 and specializes in corporate healthcare law, will oversee the firm’s day-to-day management, supported by a six-member executive committee composed of elected equity partners and the firm’s CFO and COO.
Saad and Ritchie spoke to Canadian Lawyer about the leadership changes mean for the firm and how they plan to balance managing the firm with continuing their legal practice.
Ritchie says Saad will focus on daily firm operations and oversee key business functions, while the former managing partner will guide the long-term growth strategy.
“There’s no question that Peter is the day-to-day captain of our ship,” he says. “All of our key management functions – including the CFO, COO, IT head, and marketing lead – report to him. His role is operational leadership, while the chair focuses on big-picture strategy and supporting Peter in ensuring the firm’s long-term success.”
Ritchie says that this structure is designed to ensure continuity and scalability. Loopstra Nixon is “trying to do things that are going to not only allow us to be a very successful 120-lawyer firm that we are now but also help us to get to 200 lawyers and beyond,” Ritchie says.
Both Saad and Ritchie say they will continue to practise law. Apart from keeping the firm’s top management in touch with their most important clients and cases, Ritchie says that this forces a leader to delegate all but the most strategic functions.
Saad adds that such an approach helps a lawyer better determine which files require direct engagement and which can be handled by other team members.
“We have to be great at triaging because a client will never send you a message to which you can respond in three weeks. That experience gave us tools and made us very adaptable,” he says.
Ritchie adds that this approach ensures that the firm remains lawyer-driven, with leadership decisions made by those who understand the demands of a high-performing legal practice and not by someone “who has the most idle time.”
Taking on a leadership role while continuing to practise law requires effective time management, they say. With dual responsibilities, Saad plans to dedicate early mornings and evenings to firm management, leaving the daytime hours for client work and pressing legal matters.
“Allan and I are wired very similar. We both have an early start of the day, around 4:30 or 5 am. Between nine and five, it’s a hustle, but you also have to make yourself available,” he says, adding that meetings with the firm’s committees usually happen at 5 pm.
As a managing partner, Ritchie says he structured his day around early mornings and strategic time management to stay ahead with tasks.
“I’m up every morning at 4:30, and from 4:30 until nine is when I handle anything that requires silence and thinking,” he says.
A key part of his routine was a daily 7:30 am call with the chief operating officer. “As long as we were having that meeting, things wouldn’t really get backlogged,” he explains. After nine, much like Saad, Ritchie works with clients.
Under Ritchie's leadership, the firm grew from 40 lawyers to 118, increased revenues and profits by over 400 percent, and opened five new offices in Ontario, the firm said in its press release.
“We want junior associates and students that are joining us now to inherit something that functions and that will work well long into the future,” Ritchie says.
Saad’s tenure as managing partner will commence immediately and last three years.
