Allan is the President and CEO of ADR Chambers, the largest, private alternative dispute resolution service provider in the world. ADR Chambers has administered over 55,000 mediations and arbitrations since 2012.
Allan is a mediator, arbitrator, negotiation consultant, facilitator, trainer, and ADR systems design specialist. Allan is both a Chartered Mediator (C.Med.) and a Chartered Arbitrator (C.Arb.). He has mediated two-party and multi-party disputes in numerous contexts, including commercial, employment, corporate governance, workplace, banking, personal injury, sports, entertainment and breach of contract. He has also arbitrated numerous commercial cases including cases for the National Transportation Agency and the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Board. His book on ADR systems design, ADR For Organizations, and Mediating Commercial Disputes, were both business books bestsellers. He also wrote Mediation: A Practical Guide and he is the Editor-in-Chief of the LexisNexis ADR Practice Manual.
He was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto Law School between 1992 and 2018, and has been a Special Lecturer at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law, a Lecturer at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Lisbon (Portugal), and the University of the Philippines. He has taught ADR and Negotiation courses throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia with the Stitt Feld Handy Group, a division of ADR Chambers.
After earning his B.Comm at the University of Toronto, Allan earned his LL.B. at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law and his J.D. at the University of Detroit Law School, graduating first in his class in both law schools. He then earned his LL.M. degree at Harvard Law School. Until 1994, he was a litigator at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt.
While at Harvard Law School in 1992, Allan studied negotiation and ADR with Professor Roger Fisher, Professor Frank Sander, and Bruce Patton. He has returned to Harvard on a number of occasions to act as a Teaching Assistant to Professor Fisher. Allan is Senior Advisor to the Jerusalem Arbitration Centre, an ADR organization specializing in mediating and arbitrating disputes between Israeli and Palestinian businesses. He was a Canadian delegate to UNCITRAL for negotiations leading up to the Singapore Convention for the enforcement of international mediation agreements. He is currently a Canadian delegate for UNCITRAL, working on drafting Model Expedited Arbitration Rules for international disputes. He is the Past President of the ADR Institute of Canada, the Arbitration and Mediation Institute of Canada, the Arbitration and Mediation Institute of Ontario and the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC). He is a Distinguished Fellow and Member of the Board of Governors of the International Academy of Mediators and on the Board of Governors for The Abraham Global Peace Initiative.
Allan is listed on several rosters as a mediator and arbitrator including the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Lausanne, Switzerland), the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), the Canadian Transportation Agency, the Singapore Mediation Centre, and the Japan International Mediation Centre.
Allan has been awarded the Ontario Bar Association Award of Excellence in Alternative Dispute Resolution. In 2022, he was awarded an honourary Doctor of Laws from the University of Windsor Faculty of Law. Allan is listed in The International Who’s Who of Commercial Mediation, The Best Lawyers in Canada in ADR, Who’s Who Legal: Mediation and Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders – Global Elite 2023. He has designed ADR systems for such organizations as the Canadian Bankers Association, the Ontario Human Rights Commission, the Law Society of Upper Canada, and Canadian Tire Corporation.