Paralegal License Revoked
The Ontario Law Society Tribunal Hearing Division immediately revoked the license of a paralegal for misconduct while suspended
Ms. Zopf was hired as a law clerk by Gilbertson Davis LLP commencing on January 13, 2020. Her licence was suspended at the time, and she had only recently received the 2019 decision. We find that at the time Ms. Zopf knew she was suspended and she knew she was prohibited from providing law clerk services to a law firm. This had been thoroughly canvassed in the Tribunal’s 2019 decision at paras. 13-18 (2019 ONLSTH 144).
After Ms. Zopf was hired, she held herself out as having the last name of “Zoph” not “Zopf”. This was the spelling of her last name on her employment contract and work email, and how she was known among the members of the firm.
In its submissions, the LSO alleged that Ms. Zopf changed her name for the purposes of her employment with Gilbertson Davis LLP intentionally to hide the fact that she was a suspended paralegal. The evidence on this point is inconclusive. Ms. Zopf used her real last name in her application to the firm, on her resume, and in the criminal records check she provided to the firm, but her employment contract and email contact used the name Zoph, and it appears that this is the name by which she was known at the firm. In the absence of any direct evidence, and in the face of the conflicting objective evidence, we find that the LSO has not established that Ms. Zopf misled the law firm about her true identity.
On November 30, 2022, a lawyer at the firm discovered that Ms. Zopf was under administrative suspension with the disciplinary suspension to follow, and reported the matter to management of the firm. The lawyer had concluded that she could not work at the firm while under suspension; management agreed, and reported the matter to the LSO in December 2022. Ms. Zopf was suspended with pay on December 7, 2022, and terminated on December 30, 2022.
In its report to the LSO, the law firm asserted that the suspension orders had not been disclosed at the time that Ms. Zopf was interviewed for the job.
During the LSO investigation, the following facts were elicited, but they were only presented to us as hearsay evidence by the investigator. No member of the law firm was called as a witness. The investigator was told by the law firm that it had been advised by a former employee in 2021 about alleged “misdemeanors” by Ms. Zopf. Ms. Zopf explained to the firm’s then office manager that the issue was administrative, having to do with her transition from practising as a paralegal in Alberta, and that she had not been able to pay her fees in Ontario. Ms. Zopf later told the office manager that someone at the LSO had a “vendetta” against her and was trying to prevent her from working as a paralegal. The office manager did not know that the suspension meant that Ms. Zopf could not provide legal services in any capacity while suspended.
Sanction
Given our finding of ungovernability, applying the principle of progressive discipline, and to protect the public interest, an immediate revocation of Ms. Zopf’s licence is appropriate.
(Mike Frisch)
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