Murray Rankin joined Heenan Blaikie in 2006. Previously, he was a partner in a litigation law firm where his practice focused on public law issues, with particular reference to aboriginal law, environmental law, and information and privacy law. He has also provided dispute resolution services and mediated several disputes in the public and private law contexts. A skilled negotiator, Mr. Rankin also served as a Treaty Negotiator for the Province of British Columbia and negotiated the first Agreement in Principle under the British Columbia Treaty Commission process; within the past year, he negotiated the first Economic Benefits Agreement on behalf of a First Nation in Northeast British Columbia.

For over a decade, Mr. Rankin was a Professor of Law at the University of Victoria where he taught Administrative Law and Environmental Law. He has been recognized as a leading practitioner in environmental law in Lexpert and is a past Chair of the West Coast Environmental Law Association. His environmental law practice for private and public sector clients has taken him to all levels of court in Canada and to negotiations in both Canada and the United States. He also served as the principal policy advisor in establishing the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission. In 2003, he co-founded the Canadian Centre for Environmental Arbitration and Mediation, of which he remains a member. He is currently the Chair of TLC -The Land Conservancy of British Columbia. Mr. Rankin was selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2010 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada (Woodward/White) in the specialty of Natural Resources Law.

Mr. Rankin’s wide ranging practice in administrative law has included advice and advocacy for a number of entities in both the private and public sectors. In the 1980s, he translated a leading French language text in this field written by René Dussault and Louis Borgeat, Administrative Law: A Treatise. He continues to serve as a Regional Editor of the Canadian Journal of Administrative Law and Practice.

Mr. Rankin has also had a long interest in freedom of information and privacy issues. He worked at the OECD in Paris in its Directorate of Science Technology and Industry on Transborder Information Flows and has written extensively about this field in several publications. He also served as consultant to the House of Commons committee that conducted the review of the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act in 1987 and in 1992, was appointed as special advisor responsible for the policy formation and drafting of British Columbia’s first Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. More recently, he was co-author of PIPEDA: An Annotated Guide, published by Irwin Law in 2001, and has lectured and written extensively on privacy topics pertaining to the new federal and provincial privacy legislation.