A hearing panel of the Law Society Tribunal has ordered that Vancouver lawyer George Frederick Turner Gregory be suspended for two months and that the suspension begin in July 2022, or at a date the Law Society and Gregory agree to in writing. This order follows the hearing panel’s decision on facts and determination, which Mr. Gregory has appealed.
The hearing panel found that Gregory committed professional misconduct in relation to a client seeking to foreclose on a disputed private loan, by his failure to record and make reasonable inquiries about the subject matter and objectives of his retainer, failing to make reasonable inquiries about his client and his client’s associate, and failing to make reasonable efforts to obtain or record his client’s identification information.
In determining the disciplinary action, the hearing panel considered Gregory’s unblemished professional record of 40 years, that he is well-known and well-respected within the legal community, that he did not act dishonestly and that the foreclosure transaction did not actually occur. The hearing panel considered as aggravating factors that the misconduct was prolonged, deliberate and defiant and that Gregory should have made reasonable inquiries after a national media outlet named his client and his client’s associate as drug traffickers who were laundering money in real estate, he disregarded the Law Society’s repeated urging that he closely examine his client’s banking documents, he lacked an independent translator to allow him to communicate effectively with his Chinese client, and he relied on advice from lawyers who were not completely aware of the facts of his file or the concerns of the Law Society investigator.
The decision on facts and determination is available here, and the decision on disciplinary action is available here.