THE ADVOCATE 257
VOL. 80 PART 2 MARCH 2022
Paul Robert Evans
The death of Paul Robert Evans on October 14, 2021
was sudden and is a great loss to family, friends,
members of his firm and his colleagues in the legal
community.
Paul was born on July 20, 1985 in Toronto. He spent
his early childhood in Ontario, where he discovered a
lifelong love of baseball and the Blue Jays. He lived in
parts of Asia, Hawaii and Boston before moving to Vancouver in 1998.
Paul spent the rest of his life on the West Coast. He made lifelong friends
in high school and during his time at the University of British Columbia.
That is also where he met Megan, the woman who quickly became his best
friend and later his wife. Paul graduated from UBC with a bachelor of arts
(honours) degree in political science in 2008.
Paul had a deep desire for knowledge and was always reading and learning,
whether about history, politics or baseball. He loved an intellectual
challenge. He attended law school at the University of Victoria, and
although he did not know immediately what type of law he wanted to practise,
he soon took to criminal law. He enjoyed his term at the Law Centre,
where he had his first experience as a litigator. His years of watching Law
& Order on television finally paid dividends, and Paul confirmed what he
always suspected: he was a trial lawyer. Paul travelled to Osgoode Hall Law
School in Toronto for the Peter Cory moot competition, where his team won
the first-place factum prize in 2010. During his time at UVic, Paul built
many friendships that continued even as people moved to new cities or left
the profession. Paul obtained his juris doctor degree from UVic in 2011.
Paul returned to live in Vancouver and articled with Stern & Albert, a
criminal law firm in Surrey. He was called to the bar in May 2012 and was
hired on at Stern & Albert as an associate. Changes in British Columbia’s
impaired driving laws had a significant impact on criminal law practice at
the time, and Paul found himself working as a sole practitioner before teaming
up with Philip Cote. Paul and Phil met at the Surrey courthouse, both
sole practitioners who had articled at Stern & Albert. Phil pitched to Paul
that he might consider expanding his practice areas to include some family
law and child protection work. Always ready to fight for the disadvantaged,
Paul gave the suggestion consideration.
In 2015, Paul and Phil teamed up to form Cote & Evans Trial Lawyers.
Together, they grew their Surrey-based firm to a team of eight lawyers and