The B.C. Law Society concluded Richmond lawyer Hong Guo committed professional misconduct three times in its latest disciplinary action against her.
After a citation with 19 allegations, the society’s disciplinary panel concluded there was evidence to only discipline her on three issues.
The citation, issued by the B.C. Law Society in 2020, encompasses Guo’s work in residential and commercial real estate as well as immigration and many are related to a development project in Richmond’s city centre.
Guo acted for “a substantial number of potential immigrants” applying for permanent residency under the now-defunct B.C. Provincial Nominee Program. The underlying facts in the complaint involved a convoluted entanglement of several clients who met through Guo and went into business together.
This is the sixth citation for Guo that’s been dealt with by the disciplinary panel, with three more to go.
The real estate lawyer is the subject of more than two dozen Law Society investigations, not including practice standards investigations.
Guo ‘waded into clear conflict’
The Law Society alleged Guo committed 19 instances of professional misconduct and breached her fiduciary duties while acting for her China-based clients during and after their attempts to apply for permanent residency.
All but three of the allegations were dismissed either because the society couldn’t prove them or the disciplinary panel couldn’t conclude what actually happened.
The panel found Guo committed professional misconduct and breached her fiduciary duties during the purchase of the Richmond city centre real estate development project by representing two or more of her clients but failing to obtain their informed consent about the potential conflict of interest.
She also committed professional misconduct when she “waded into a clear conflict where she could not avoid preferring the interests of one client over another by continuing to act” in representing both a corporate client and an immigration client during a sale of shares.
Finally, the panel found Guo had “enmeshed herself in a conflict between clients” while doing the legal work for a $14.5 million loan.
The situation was “exacerbated by her professional failure to even understand where she had placed herself.”
Although the panel did not reach a conclusion on Guo’s competency, it acknowledged her failure to advise her clients of risks associated with being a minority shareholder “raises a significant concern about (Guo’s) general lack of competency as a lawyer practicing corporate commercial law.”
The transgression, however, did not amount to professional misconduct.
Guo was ‘regularly careless’
During the disciplinary hearing, Guo “professed lack of memory about important matters, especially when shown documents that brought her evidence into question,” reads the panel’s decision.
Guo relied on the argument that all parties had their own lawyers, but she failed to identify such lawyers.
She also raised a defence of “guanxi,” the Chinese way of doing business, which involves friendship, exchange of favours and interpersonal trust.
The panel noted this was not Guo’s first time raising the defence in a disciplinary hearing and rejected it.
“(Guo) is a member of the Law Society of BC and subject to the Act, Rules and the BC Code, as are all lawyers in this province,” reads the decision.
“The standards with which she must comply are the same ones that apply to all those lawyers; nothing less and nothing different.”
The panel ultimately concluded Guo dealt with the parties and the Law Society with good intentions.
“However, she was regularly careless about her professional obligations and seems to have failed to turn her mind to the looming conflicts present with her professional actions, and to the gravity of ensuring her answers to the Law Society were accurate,” said the panel.
Crumbling law practice
Testimony from Guo’s former legal assistant informed the panel Guo had a “very busy practice” and the waiting room in her No. 3 Road law office was so packed it was “more akin to a doctor’s office than a (lawyer’s).”
According to the assistant, 99 per cent of people in the room spoke Mandarin.
A friend of Guo also told the panel Guo knew a lot of Chinese people in the Vancouver area and routinely acted as a “matchmaker” by connecting members of the community with each other.
Her law practice, however, has now crumbled, according to Guo.
During the disciplinary hearing, Guo told the panel about her practice going bankrupt, which resulted in her cutting down to two staff and closing her Beijing office. She added she has restricted herself to acting on matters not involving a trust account.
Guo, who is a former legal specialist for the People’s Republic of China state council, is currently under a one-year suspension of practicing law that started in March.
Just last month, she was found to have committed professional misconduct while holding funds on trust for clients and for being “evasive and untruthful” during a Law Society investigation.
