Joven Narwal, K.C.

Joven Narwal is a leading Vancouver trial and appellate lawyer whose practice is devoted to complex and serious cases where liberty and reputation are at stake, primarily in the areas of criminal litigation, securities litigation, professional regulation, and specialty civil litigation involving criminal overtones.

Inducted into Best Lawyers Canada, he has also been recognized as a “Litigation Star” and shortlisted for “White Collar Crime / Enforcement Lawyer of the Year” by Benchmark Litigation Canada for the past three consecutive years, was named a “Leading Lawyer to Watch” by Lexpert in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, and is an inducted life member of the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, a global honorary society.

He is an adjunct professor at the Allard School of Law at UBC, where he created and teaches two upper-level seminars on complex criminal litigation, “White Collar Crime” and “Criminal Organizations”. He served as the first visible minority president of the Vancouver Bar Association in its 126+ year history and currently holds several other leadership positions in the legal profession, including Chair of the Canadian Bar Association – Criminal Subsection; director, governor and executive of the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia and director of the South Asian Bar Association of British Columbia. He also serves as a member of the judicial council of the Tsawwassen First Nation, where he is responsible for resolving disputes, hearing appeals, and adjudicating the validity of Tsawwassen Laws.

He has appeared at all levels of court including the Supreme Court of Canada, and has been counsel before regulators in the health professions, legal profession, financial industry, in addition to having acted for clergy, athletes and academics before their respective governing bodies. He has extensive practice involving cross-border investigations and enforcement actions, such as US grand jury investigations, Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty Requests and other foreign subpoenas and demands for production as well as extradition and issues relating to international sanctions. As a complement to his busy advocacy practice, he is frequently consulted for ethical advice and for preventative advice regarding the design and implementation of compliance procedures designed to reduce exposure to prosecution.

He is frequently invited to speak at professional development seminars and regularly publishes on topics of interest to the public and legal profession. He is a co-editor of a text on Canadian criminal law published by the Canadian Legal Information Institute.

He earned a B.A. and LL.B. from the University of British Columbia, an LL.M from Columbia University in New York City, started his career as a Crown prosecutor and is honored to also be admitted to practice as defence counsel before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.