The DMZ’s Startup Legal Support program powered by MT>Ventures honoured by Precedent Magazine’s 2022 Innovation Awards
Precedent award recognizes MT>Ventures for supporting Canada’s startup community with equitable legal support
Toronto, November 8, 2022 – The DMZ’s Startup Legal Support program powered by MT>Ventures (Startup Legal Support), was named an official recipient of the 2022 Precedent Innovation Awards.
Precedent’s annual innovation awards highlight a select group of forward thinking projects that have a profound impact on the legal profession. Award recipients are selected based on their contributions to pushing the status quo, service excellence, improving the legal workplace or supporting the public with access to justice.
Officially launched in March of 2022 and derived from a pilot program overseen by Suresh Law, Startup Legal Support drives the advancement of Canada’s startup ecosystem by providing strategic legal advice and assistance to tech founders at the DMZ. Created in partnership with MT>Ventures, a division of the leading Canadian law firm McCarthy Tétrault, the program was designed as a personalized in-house legal clinic that gives founders access to legal strategy sessions and training, custom contract drafting, legal education and more.
“We knew right away that Startup Legal Support would be a game changer,” said Aliya Ramji, Co-Founder of MT>Ventures and a partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP. “High-quality legal advice is critical to a startup’s long-term success, and the Startup Legal Support program makes that advice accessible in a way that gives founders a real edge in the hyper-competitive startup ecosystem. It’s great to see the program recognized so early on, and we’re excited to see where it can go.”
Startup Legal Support was initially inspired by a then first-year law student at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law, who today leads the program’s efforts at the DMZ. “As an entrepreneur myself, I saw firsthand the barriers founders face when accessing professional services to support their ventures,” said Nicholas Hill, Program Lead and Architect of the Startup Legal Support program at the DMZ, and now 3L student at Lincoln Alexander School of Law. “I pursued law school to tackle this problem and provide founders with the same quality of in-house support established businesses may take for granted. I have been fortunate enough to find a law school, an organization, and a law firm willing to support me in that mission.”
“Working with Nicholas Hill and Startup Legal Support powered by MT>Ventures is like having a Chief Legal Officer on your team,” said Jaydee Tarpeh, Founder and CEO of Avian. “The turnaround time for important legal documents and being able to book a call to chat about legal bumps is something you can only dream of with a big law firm. Startup Legal Support is an invaluable resource for me and my startup.”
“At the DMZ, we understand that long term startup growth is dependent on whether or not our founders are positioned to formalize their legal processes in the early days of growing their companies,” said Sherif El Tawil, Senior Director of Programs and Partnerships at the DMZ. “The importance of legal support for early-stage founders is immeasurable.”
To learn more about the 2022 Precedent Innovation Awards and Startup Legal Support’s award recognition click here.
For more information on Startup Legal Support and how it empowers founders with legal assistance, please visit dmz.to/SLS.
Photo: Saty + Pratha
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Media Contact
Luvy Hardy, The DMZ
luvy.hardy@torontomu.ca
About the DMZ
The DMZ is a world-leading startup incubator based at Toronto Metropolitan University that equips the next generation of tech entrepreneurs with the tools needed to build, launch, and scale highly impactful startups. By providing connections to customers, coaching, capital, and a community, the DMZ’s customized approach helps innovators reach the next milestone in their entrepreneurial journey – whatever that might be. Through its award-winning programming, the DMZ has helped more than 700 startups raise $1.85 billion in capital and create 4,700+ jobs. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada with globally-accessible programming, the DMZ has a widely-recognized international presence with offices in Vietnam, India, and the U.S., and partnerships across North America, Latin America, Africa and Asia.
About MT>Ventures
MT>Ventures lets startups shift focus from simply surviving the day-to-day, going beyond legal services to deliver access to the industry expertise, professional talent, and capital opportunities needed to realize their full potential.
