Former Victoria law firm fined $50k for trust management errors

[White Wolf]

A former Victoria law firm has been fined $50,000 for professional misconduct after various errors were found in its management of trust funds.

The Law Society of B.C. issued the fine, which it says also resolves complaints against the three former partners of DGW Law Corporation: Christopher G. Devlin, John W. Gailus, and Timothy A. Watson.

The Law Society says the fine is due to the law firm failing to adequately supervise and instruct staff on trust accounting rules, improperly withdrawing funds from trust, improperly depositing trust funds into the law firms general account, withdrawing in ways that weren’t compliant to the rules, and failing to maintain its books.

In a consent agreement summary, the law society says the primary staff accounting staff member was not trained in accounting. In addition, the law society says there was not adequate oversight of the accounting staff.

The law society found various issues with the accounting trust management, totalling over $1 million including:

$39,079.99 across 27 instances where trust funds were deposited into the firm’s general account
$875,735.06 across 58 instances where a non-lawyer staff withdrew funds by an electronic funds transfer, contrary to requirements set out by the law society
$141,359.91 improperly withdrawn from the trust
$9,408 in retainer funds deposited into the general account
$10,000 improperly withdrawn from the trust account
The consent agreement says that no client suffered a financial loss as a result of the “inadequate accounting practices and procedures.”

The DGW Law Corporation dissolved on Dec. 31, 2023.

Former Victoria law firm fined $50k for trust management errors https://share.google/0yR6Xc0HTwkG6scve