Monica Goyal holds dual credentials as a Professional Engineer and a lawyer, and has spent more than a decade building tools that sit at the intersection of both. Her work focuses on making legal services more accessible, one line of code and one classroom at a time.
In 2010, before legal tech became a buzzword and long before generative AI entered the vernacular of law firms, Monica Goyal launched My Legal Briefcase, a platform designed to help people navigate legal processes they could not afford to outsource. The field was not yet mainstream. Funding was scarce. The idea that technology could reshape the delivery of legal services was still met with skepticism in many corners of the profession, and with tech investors. Goyal built it anyway, drawing on a background that spanned work in the technology industry, and her law degree from the University of Toronto. By the time the platform closed in 2020, it had served more than 500 users.
That early venture set the tone for the career that followed. Today, Goyal serves as VP of Legal Innovation at Caravel Law and Briefly Legal, where she leads enterprise AI transformation across four law firms. Her work involves evaluating emerging technologies, overseeing AI product development, and managing contract automation systems. She describes her role as one that requires fluency in two languages: the logic of engineering and the nuance of law. Few people speak both.
From Tech to the Bar
Goyal earned a Bachelor of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 1997, then a Master of Science in the same field from Stanford University in 2002. She worked as a hardware design engineer at companies including Analog Devices, Intrinsix Corp., Toshiba America Electronics, and Evertz Microsystems. The work was technical, precise, and far removed from courtrooms or case law.
But in 2004, she enrolled at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. She was called to the bar in Ontario in 2009 and became a member of both the Law Society of Ontario and Professional Engineers of Ontario. The decision to pursue law was not a departure from engineering but an extension of it. She saw systems in both fields, and she saw gaps.
In 2013, she founded Aluvion Law, a firm structured around the idea that legal services could be delivered more affordably and accessibly. It continues to operate, but Goyal decided to follow another path. . The following year, she continued practicing under Monica N. Goyal Barrister & Solicitor, focusing on business and technology law and education, until she joined Caravel Law in 2020.
Teaching the First Legal Tech Course in Canada
Goyal began teaching at Osgoode Hall Law School in 2014, where she developed and led what she describes as one of the first legal technology course of its kind in Canada. The curriculum examined how technology was reshaping the practice of law, from document automation to data analytics. Guiding students to pitch their own software ideas that leverage software in the delivery of legal services. She taught there until 2019, working as both an adjunct and visiting professor.
In 2019, she became Instructor and Course Developer at the Institute of Future Law Practice, a role she held until 2021. Since 2022, she has been a Contract Lecturer at Lincoln Alexander Law School, teaching Critical Approaches to Data, Algorithm, and Science in the Law. The course examines the intersection of legal reasoning and computational systems, a theme that runs through much of her work.
Her teaching is informed by a belief that students entering the legal profession needs to understand the tools it uses. She has said that success in legal innovation requires understanding both the law and the business of law, as well as the technology itself. For Goyal, education is not separate from practice. It is part of the infrastructure needed to support change.
Recognition and Barriers
Goyal has been named to the ABA Ten Women to Watch in Legal Tech and received the Fastcase 50 award in 2017. She has been honored with the Women in Legal Tech Award and nominated multiple times for Changemaker Awards by Canadian Lawyer Magazine, where she also serves on the editorial board. Caravel Law, where she works, received the LexisNexis Canada Award for Best Use of Technology In a Law Firm in both 2023,2025, and 2026.
She has also spoken openly about the obstacles she has faced. In interviews, she has acknowledged that her gender and ethnicity have presented challenges. She has described self-doubt as a constant presence and has said that meditation helps her manage it. She works with people who lift her up rather than diminish her, and she focuses on incremental progress. Small steps, sustained over time, can produce significant results.
AI, Access, and the Justice Gap
Goyal’s current work centers on the deployment of artificial intelligence in legal settings. She evaluates new tools, integrates large language models, develops prompts for legal workflows, and oversees automation projects. But her interest in AI is not purely technical. She frames it as a question of access. Legal services remain out of reach for many people, and she believes technology has the potential to narrow that gap.
In 2026, she launched a personal initiative focused on the responsible adoption of AI in the legal profession, championing a balanced approach to technology, ethics, education, and accessibility. Through this work, she advocates that conversations around AI must extend beyond simple efficiency to address long-term impacts and ethical responsibility. Crucially, she highlights how AI can be leveraged to expand access to legal services for those who cannot afford traditional support.
Her approach to innovation is methodical. She sets long-term goals each year and works toward them incrementally. She has said that she can work too much and that balance is important. She supports organizations including Sick Kids, the Food Bank, Covenant House, and a local meditation center. From 2009 to 2015, she served as Chairperson of the Board at Griffin Centre Mental Health Services, and from 2010 to 2013 she was a board member at Adventure Place.
Building in the Margins
Goyal grew up in Toronto and continues to be based in the Greater Toronto Area, though her work has connected her to legal communities in New York City and San Francisco. She enjoys hiking, traveling, biking, and meditation. Her career has been defined not by a single breakthrough but by sustained effort across multiple fronts: teaching, building, practicing, and advocating.
She has described founding My Legal Briefcase as one of the most challenging experiences of her career, not because the technology was unproven, but because the field itself was still forming. She was building infrastructure for a conversation that had not yet begun in earnest. That work, along with her efforts to bridge engineering and law, represents what she calls a non-traditional legal career path. It required her to operate in spaces that did not yet have clear definitions or established support structures.
The Work Ahead for Monica Goyal
Goyal continues to lead AI transformation efforts at Caravel Law and Briefly Legal. Her work remains focused on the same questions she was asking in 2010: how technology can make legal services more accessible, how lawyers can be better equipped to use new tools, and how systems can be designed to serve people who have been priced out of the profession.
She has said that she wants to make a difference not only to the profession but to society through her work. Legal tech, she believes, could help bridge the gap for people who cannot currently afford legal services. It is a long-term project, and she continues to chip away at it, one day at a time.
