In what circumstances will a lawyer be struck off his licence for fraudulent real estate transactions?

In McSween v. Law Society of Upper Canada[6] the lawyer, who was completely inexperienced in real estate matters, had trusted and relied upon an unscrupulous clerk to whom he also gave access to his Teranet privileges. The appeal panel set aside the hearing panel’s finding that the lawyer had been a knowing participant in 10 fraudulent real estate transactions, and found instead that the lawyer had completely abdicated his responsibility. The penalty of revocation imposed by the hearing panel was varied to allow the lawyer to surrender his licence.

The lawyer in Puskas v. Law Society of Upper Canada[7] practised mostly criminal law and employed a non-lawyer clerk who did the “legwork” on real estate files and assisted him with all aspects of office administration and bookkeeping, prepared cheques, attended to banking matters and interacted with clients. She had access to the lawyer’s Teranet disk and pass code. Unbeknownst to the lawyer, she also had access to an old trust account which the lawyer believed had been closed. The clerk caused sales and mortgage proceeds to be moved to that account and then took the funds. She had forged the lawyer’s signature on a number of occasions.