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w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 1 8 25 aunching a legal tech startup is not for the faint of heart. Many lawyers dream about starting their own company and making millions on their idea, but they are often neither suited to nor taught how to do this. But for Puneet Tiwari, a lawyer who took the plunge in 2016 and started Evichat, a legal tech star- tup that helps lawyers collect digital evidence from mobile devices, social media and websites, his path makes perfect sense. Tiwari deals with the inevitable uncertainty that he faces by drawing on the experiences of many others in his life who have followed a similar path. Tiwari grew up in Ottawa and was raised by a single moth- er. "I had a good childhood, although being South Asian, it's uncommon for there to be a single-parent household." His grandparents also helped raise him, and his extended family has been a key anchor for his professional growth. His uncle launched a technology startup that was acquired by Texas Instruments, where his uncle still works, and Tiwari has other relatives that have had successful tech-startup exits. "I've seen these journeys over and over again and I figured out it's a repeat- able process and it's just regular people doing it." He was surrounded by technology from a young age and was clearly an early adopter. "Growing up, I had this big, old, clunky computer and a bunch of computer games and I would be play- ing around with it all the time. And we also always had the latest computer growing up. That's how [my interest] started, with the computer games. When I got to high school, it was still in the area where not everyone had a computer at home so it gave me a huge advantage when doing projects and assignments." Despite his affinity to technology, Tiwari always wanted to be a lawyer and went to law school at Western Michigan University after his undergraduate degree in Canada. He didn't realize at the time that the law school environment would not be as tech friendly as he was. "I remember our research and writing class. The first few months, we weren't allowed to use computers for legal research. They would force us to go to the library so we would learn how to do it the old-school way. When I actually started articling, we had Westlaw; I never went to a legal library even once." In his last term, Tiwari clerked with Judge Rosemarie Aquilina in the 30th Circuit Court. Aquilina, who is now well known as the judge who sentenced Dr. Larry Nassar in the U.S. Olympic sexual abuse case, made a strong impression on Tiwari, as she did in the Nassar case. "She was a phenomenal mentor and employer. . . . She really shows the softer side of law and how we should practise." C R O S S E X A M I N E D Bound for legal tech Puneet Tiwari always knew he wanted to be a tech innovator despite the uncertainties By Tim Wilbur L

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