Rajani Tiwari

Rajani Tiwari is a Barrister and Solicitor currently practicing in Toronto, Ontario. She was called to the Nepal Bar Council in 2000, ranking 1st women lawyer among women lawyers in the country. Ms. Tiwari was called to the Law Society of Ontario and to the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society in 2024. She has been engaged in the Canadian legal services industry since 2014, providing services in Real Estate Law, Will/Power of Attorney, and Family Law matters.

Ms. Tiwari completed the Internationally Trained Lawyer’s Program from the University of Toronto in 2013. She completed Canadian Constitution Law and Legal Research at the Common Law LLM program at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, in 2014, and the Certification of Qualification from the Federation of Law Societies of Canada in 2015. Likewise, she completed the Practice Readiness Educational Program (PREP) from the Center for Professional Legal Education in 2023. She obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Corporate & Commercial Law in 2002 and a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Sociology and Anthropology in 2008 from Tribhuvan University, Nepal.

Ms. Tiwari began her legal career in Canada as an intern in the Internationally Trained Lawyers program at the Duty Counsel Office of the Ontario Court of Justice in 2013. She then joined Paul Anthony Dineen at "Chapnick and Associates" in 2014 as Mr. Dineen’s real estate assistant for 5 years. She excelled in various real estate transactions and built a professional network. Further, she worked as a Law Office Manager in Karkee Law Firm and showcased her skills and experience in Real Estate Law, Wills and Estate until 2023. In 2023, she joined Pavel Boubnov’s Law Office as an articling lawyer and got involved with the Family Law and Criminal Law Practice in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Then, in 2024, she joined Karkee law firm as a Barrister and Solicitor.

In Nepal, Ms. Tiwari started her career as a Human Rights Researcher at the Tribhuvan University from 2002 to 2003. She gathered information on human rights violations, wrote contemporary articles, and collected experts’ articles for the purpose of publishing a Human Rights Book.

Secondly, Ms. Tiwari worked as a lawyer in Maiti Nepal to combat trafficking against women and girls. She represented the trafficking victims (girls and women, who were victims of human trafficking into Indian brothels and returned to Nepal) in the court of law as a pro-bono lawyer.

Thirdly, she joined the Nepal Bar Association, Improving Free Legal Aid, Human Rights and Access to Justice project from 2004 to 2006. She was involved in collecting stakeholders’ opinions to amend the Legal Aid Act 1997 and its Regulation 1998. She steered the data analysis component and prepared the draft amendment to the Act and the Regulation, which was presented at various forums for wider discussion and ultimately submitted to the Ministry of Law as the amendment draft. She observed the services provided by the Central Legal Aid Committee and 66 District Legal Aid Committees.

Further, she worked as a Program Officer for Violence Against Women in Politics in the South Asia-based research project by SAP-International from 2006 to 2008. She worked to establish and implement the surveillance system in Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri-Lanka and Bangladesh for the purpose of monitoring the cases of violence against women in politics. She drafted case study reports reflecting the incidents of violence against women in politics in those countries. She analyzed gaps in existing acts and regulations from the viewpoint of addressing the violence against women in politics. She also drafted a gender-sensitive code of conduct for major political parties and the Election Commission, as well as model legal provisions to address such violence within those countries’ legal systems.

Fourthly, she worked as a Coordinator for the Violence Against Women Campaign at the Women's Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC) for a short period. She got an opportunity to understand the complexity of violence Against Women in Nepal while conducting research on incidents of VAW.

Lastly, Ms. Tiwari rejoined the Nepal Bar Association as a Legal Aid Project Director in 2009. She directed and coordinated country-wide Legal Aid programs and prepared the fact sheets of the cases in which women were a party to the dispute, such as assault, domestic violence, divorce, and division of property. Similarly, she planned, prepared, and conducted the National Women Lawyers’ Conference and the Legal Aid Lawyers’ Conference.