Ryan was born in Denver and raised in Fort Collins, Colorado. He attended the University of Colorado in Boulder and graduated with bachelors degrees in both philosophy and political science in the Spring of 2001.

After spending a year managing a restaurant in Boulder, he attended law school at the Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. While at Wake Forest, Ryan served a year as Secretary and a year as President of the Wake Forest Public Interest Law Organization, had the opportunity to work at Wake Forest’s Elder Law Clinic, and played scrum-half for the Worrell Professional Center Rugby Team. During his second and third years of school, Ryan volunteered with Casa Guadalupe of Catholic Social Services, and graduated with his Juris Doctorate in May 2005.

After moving to Santa Maria in December of 2005, Ryan joined Kirk & Simas three months later. Ryan has worked in several different practice areas, focusing primarily on real estate matters and business acquisitions, formations, transactions, and employment matters.