News Release
January 20, 2022

A hearing panel of the Law Society Tribunal has ordered that Richmond lawyer Hong Guo be suspended for one month, starting on February 1, 2022.

The panel found that Guo committed professional misconduct by failing to ensure clients’ advance payments of cash funds were deposited into a trust account and by breaching an interim order that prohibited her from handling trust funds in the first place.  

The Law Society had asked the panel to impose a four-month suspension and restrictions on Guo’s practice, including that she practise law only as an employee of a law firm approved by the executive director, not handle any trust transactions, and not have responsibility for authorizing trust transactions or for any bookkeeping or maintaining financial records for a law firm.

In imposing the one-month suspension, the panel considered Guo’s professional conduct history, as well as mitigating factors, including the modest amount of trust funds mishandled, that none of the clients suffered harm or lost money and that her misconduct was not intentional. The panel also concluded that the practice conditions sought by the Law Society are not needed to ensure the protection of the public, citing a decision on a separate disciplinary matter involving Guo (2021 LSBC 43).

The panel’s decision on facts and determination is available here and the decision on disciplinary action is available here.

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For media inquiries, contact:

Vinnie Yuen
Communications Officer
604.697.5836
vyuen@lsbc.org