How a top criminal law firm in Canada defends clients where criminal and regulatory risk collide
Canadian individuals and institutions face a more complex risk environment, where geopolitical dynamics and shifting international enforcement priorities shape exposure and demand strategic defence.
Narwal Litigation LLP, recognized among Canadian Lawyer’s Top Criminal Law Boutiques 2026–27 and 2024–25, has built its practice to operate in that space. Headquartered in Vancouver, the firm acts across Canada and internationally, representing individuals, regulated professionals, institutions, and public companies in matters where legal exposure is only one dimension of risk.
At the core of that model is a view of criminal defence shaped by how enforcement now functions. Changes in US white-collar enforcement have begun to reshape how matters develop across jurisdictions, with direct consequences for Canadian clients.
“The restructuring of white-collar enforcement priorities in the United States over the past year has been the most consequential development for Canadian criminal and regulatory defence counsel in a decade,” says founder Joven Narwal, KC. “Enforcement coordination between our jurisdictions is deeper than most realize, and the downstream consequences for individuals and institutions in Canada are real and immediate.”
Canada is moving at the same time. The country has announced its most significant overhaul of financial crimes enforcement in a generation, with the creation of a new Financial Crimes Agency that brings together RCMP investigative capacity, FINTRAC intelligence, and CRA expertise under one roof.
“For years, sophisticated financial crime enforcement in Canada was hamstrung by fragmentation. That changes with this agency, and the implications for institutions, regulated professionals, and public companies are significant,” explains Narwal. “We are moving into an era of heightened Canadian enforcement capacity at precisely the moment when American enforcement is in flux.”
For clients, those developments intersect with pressures that define modern enforcement risk:
- cross-border coordination between regulators and prosecutors
- shifting sanctions regimes and trade enforcement
- expanded focus on individual accountability and corporate criminal liability
- increased visibility of enforcement action directed at professional gatekeepers
“We are living through a period of extraordinary geopolitical volatility,” Narwal says. “That is precisely why we have mobilized our practice to operate at the intersection of those forces to address the exposure they create for our clients.”
Narwal Litigation has built a model designed to operate in this environment. The firm integrates criminal defence, regulatory strategy, and institutional crisis management to address risk across multiple forums. Individual criminal defence and institutional crisis response are more connected than they appear.
“We built a firm with the capability of litigating complex criminal cases while addressing regulatory architecture, reputational dimensions, and cross-border enforcement surrounding any matter,” Narwal says. “The thread that connects all representations is a commitment to multidimensional advocacy.”
Shaping the white-collar prosecution landscape
Called to the bar in British Columbia in 2008 and appointed King’s Counsel in 2023, Narwal has acted as lead counsel in landmark criminal and regulatory proceedings at trial and on appeal, including matters before the Supreme Court of Canada. His recent work in 2025 includes successful defences in R v Pollard an insider trading prosecution, R v Al Homsi another Securities Act prosecution involving breach of an order, a high-profile acquittal in a double vehicular fatality case, and other ongoing constitutional challenges, appeals and extradition proceedings.
The same discipline carries across the firm’s institutional practice. For Narwal, the distinction between individual defence and organizational crisis response is overstated.
“There is a common misconception that criminal defence for individuals and crisis response for institutions are fundamentally different disciplines,” he says. “They are not. What changes is the scale and the number of stakeholders. The discipline required of counsel is the same.”
In high-stakes matters, the immediate allegation is rarely the full story, Narwal says. “The foundation for success is built on understanding the full spectrum of risk from the beginning. Not just the potential criminal charges, but the collateral exposures, reputational risks, and regulatory overlaps.”
As an adjunct professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, Narwal has been teaching a course on white-collar crime for nearly 15 years, drawing directly from his practice.
“The risk of wrongful conviction is not confined to violent crime; it arises with equal force and, perhaps greater frequency, in white-collar and regulatory prosecutions,” he says. “Institutional pressure to pursue visible enforcement creates conditions in which innocent individuals can find themselves facing allegations that take years and enormous resources to overcome.”
For more information, visit Narwal Litigation LLP, Vancouver Criminal Defense Lawyers.
This article was produced in partnership with Narwal Litigation LLP
