A former Kamloops lawyer has been disbarred after being found to be “ungovernable” by a Law Society Tribunal hearing panel.
According to a disciplinary summary posted on Wednesday, the tribunal panel found Nickolaus Harold MacDonald Weiser committed professional misconduct in relation to six separate allegations.
That includes improper use of his trust account for personal financial benefit and in the absence of substantial legal services, breaches of trust accounting rules, acting in multiple conflicts of interest, making false or misleading representations to the Law Society and failing to cooperate with the Society throughout the disciplinary process, the summary says.
“In addition to misleading the Law Society during the investigation, as to conceal the misuse of his trust account, Weiser set out to document a fabricated narrative about legitimate loans in order to prevent the Law Society learning about or investigating the misconduct,” the panel says.
According to a 24-page decision, the first of the six allegations happened between January and May 2019 and involved Weiser using his law firm’s trust account for his “personal financial benefit.”
That included using the trust account to receive and disburse some or all of approximately $198,000 of his own funds, using the account to receive funds paid to him personally from the proceeds of a cannabis business and maintaining more than $300 of his own money in the account.
The decision says that during that time Weiser also drafted documents regarding purported loans when “he knew or ought to have known that they were not such bona fide loans and the documents were false or misleading.”
The second allegation happened between October 2020 and February 2022, in the course of an investigation into his conduct by the Law Society of British Columbia, Weiser made representations that were false or misleading.”
The third allegation says that between July 2018 and June 2019, he failed to maintain the minimum required general account records.
According to the decision, the fourth allegation happened between February and September 2019 when Weiser “acted in a conflict of interest when he entered into agreements to borrow funds from one or both of his clients” contrary to one or more rules in the BC Code of Professional Conduct.
Another instance of him acting in a conflict of interest happened between about October 2015 and November 2016. The fifth allegation involved Weiser representing a client in an estate matter.
The sixth and final allegation happened between August 2018 and January 2020 when Weser again acted in a conflict of interest when he represented one client as the borrower and another as the lender with respect to the same loan.
When considering disbarring Weiser, the tribunal panel considered his “lengthy” professional conduct record that reportedly showed a “consistent and repetitive” failure to respond to communications from the Law Society and a pattern for disregarding mandatory conflict rules.
According to the summary, he was administratively suspended several times between 2021 and 2022 and in July 2023, he was ordered a three-month suspension because he allegedly continued to practice while suspended.
That suspension was also ordered due to a failure to cooperate with another Law Society investigation, the summary says.
In addition to being disbarred, Weiser has been ordered to pay $16,668 in costs.
