Ph.: 505-277-0995
Fax: 505-277-0068
Office: 1113
Assistant Professor of Law
B.S. B.A. 1993, Georgetown University
J.D. 1999, University of Virginia School of Law
Member of the Colorado and Texas Bars
Alex Ritchie joined the University of New Mexico School of Law faculty in the fall of 2012. Previously, he practiced as a partner in the natural resources and corporate departments at an international law firm based in Denver. In private practice, Ritchie focused on mergers and acquisitions and other large transactions involving oil and gas, mining and other natural resources companies, as well as corporate law, securities, financing and commercial law transactions.
Most recently, Ritchie was a senior corporate counsel at one of the largest fully integrated oil and gas companies in North America, managing upstream and downstream oil and gas litigation and transactional matters.
He has represented clients in transactions aggregating in the billions of dollars, and hopes to apply his practical experience to enrich the legal education of his students. In addition, Ritchie has published several papers and model form legal documents and has given numerous talks focused on natural resources related topics.
At the UNM School of Law, Ritchie teaches oil and gas law and other natural resources courses, as well as property and business associations. His research focuses on oil and gas law, with particular emphasis on conflicts between private interest owners and between public and private interests in oil and gas development.
Ritchie is a trustee of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation and recently co-chaired the Foundation’s Special Institute on Oil and Gas Agreements: Contracting for Goods, Services and People, held on May 2-3, 2013 in Santa Fe. Ritchie has spoken at a number of Foundation programs on oil and gas, mining, environmental and coorporate legal issues.
In addition to his legal interests, he has been actively involved in the Denver community, including service on the board of directors, the executive committee and as pro bono general counsel of Urban Peak, an organization that operates shelters and transitional housing for homeless youth, and The Spot, an organization that operated a drop-in youth center for youth at-risk of gang involvement. He also volunteered with Denver’s Road Home, an organization formed with a mission to end homelessness in Denver.
Ritchie has also been an active singer, directing an a capella singing group and performing for a number of years in bands.
When engaging in business, the rights, powers, duties, and obligations of the business itself, and of the owners, directors, officers, managers, and other agents of the business, depend on the form of the business association. Students in this course will study the law governing the attributes of corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies, and how these business associations are organized, operated, merged, dissolved, and acquired. Further, as business associations exist only as intangible legal creations, they must act through their agents. As such, this course also introduces students to agency law and the attendant legal duties of individuals who assume responsibility for the management of business associations. As part of this course, students will be faced with problems involving claims against and the defense of business associations and their agents, and tasked with drafting incorporation and board documents based on factual situations.
As a top ten producing state in both oil and gas, New Mexico needs lawyers who understand the complex contract and property law issues that intertwine to determine the rights and obligations of parties with competing interests in oil and gas. Students in this course will study and engage in legal problems relating to oil and gas ownership rights, the leasing and transfer of those rights, and the development and marketing of oil and gas. This course also will introduce students to how and why conservation laws have developed in New Mexico and other states to assure the safe, fair, and efficient development of oil and gas. This course will provide students, including those who may not be particularly interested in oil and gas law, the opportunity to further develop contract and property law skills by applying legal principles to factual problems in a specialized context.
This first year course is an introduction to the basic concepts of property law, focusing on the role of possession in allocating the various rights and responsibilities connected with personal and real property. The course covers acquisition of initial property rights, adverse possession, donative transfers, the evolution and nomenclature of interests in estates in land and future interest, concurrent property rights, and marital property.
Handbook of Due Diligence Checklists (Rocky Mt. Min. L. Fdn. 2010) (co-author).
Scattered and Dissonant: The Clean Air Act, Greenhouse Gases, and Implications for the Oil and Gas Industry, 43 ENTL. L ___ (forthcoming 2013).
How Contract Boilerplate Can Bite, Oil and Gas Agreements: Contracting for Goods, Services, and People, Paper 6, Page No. 6-1 (Rocky Mt. Min. L. Fdn. 2013).
The Due Diligence Process and Its Impact on the Deal: A Primer on Bayoneting the Wounded, Due Diligence in Mining and Oil and Gas Transactions, Paper No. 1, Page No. 1-1 (Rocky Mt. Min. L. Fdn. 2010) (co-author).
Form 5 LLC: A Modest Proposal for a Limited Liability Company Agreement Based on Form 5, 53 Rocky Mtn. Min L. Inst. 13-1 (2007) (co-author).
Note: Intermediate Sanctions: Controlling the Tax Exempt Organization Manager, 18 Va. Tax. Rev. 1875.
Fracking surrounded by misinformation, ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL (Jan. 28, 2013), available at http://www.abqjournal.com/163942/biz/fracking-surrounded-by-misinformation.html.
“How Contract Boilerplate Can Bite,” Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Special Institute on Oil and Gas Agreements: Goods, Services, and People, Santa Fe, New Mexico (May, 2013).
“Greenhouse Gas Regulation and the Oil and Gas Industry,” Albuquerque Petroleum Association Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico (March, 2013). “Greenhouse Gas Regulation of the Oil and Gas and Mining Industries,” Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Special Institute on Air Quality Issues Affecting Oil and Gas and Mining Development in the West, Denver, Colorado (February, 2013).
“New Federal Air Quality Developments Affecting Upstream Oil and Gas Operations,” New Mexico Independent Petroleum Association Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico (August 10, 2012)
“The Due Diligence Process,” Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Special Institute on Due Diligence in Oil and Gas Transactions, Houston, Texas (May, 2011).
“The New Draft Form 5 LLC Mining Joint Venture Operating Agreement and Related Agreements,” 56th Annual Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Annual Institute, Banff, Alberta, Canada (July, 2010).
“The Due Diligence Process and Its Impact on the Deal,” Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Special Institute on Due Diligence in Oil and Gas and Mining Transactions, Westminster, Colorado (April, 2010).
UNM School of Law
1117 Stanford NE MSC11 6070, 1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
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