Consent Resignation For Sexual Harassment Of Employees
From the web page of the British Columbia Law Society
Surrey lawyer Stuart Zukerman has resigned his Law Society membership effective November 30, 2024, and agreed not to apply for reinstatement for a minimum of five years after admitting to professional misconduct.
In a consent agreement, Zukerman admitted that between 2000 and 2023 he sexually harassed employees at his law firm. Zukerman created, promoted or encouraged a highly sexualized, intimidating, hostile and/or offensive work environment at his firm. His misconduct included touching without consent, making comments of a sexual nature, engaging in unwelcomed romantic and/or sexual advances and taking or attempting to take a surreptitious photograph and video without the person’s consent.
In approving the consent agreement proposal, the Chair of Discipline considered the outcomes in prior and related cases, the interests of the victims and Zukerman’s physical and mental health issue.
Additional terms of the agreement include that Zukerman must not submit an application for membership in any other law society in Canada for five years; must advise the Law Society before applying for membership in any other law society; and must obtain written consent from the Law Society before working for any firm in BC. The consent agreement will now form part of his professional conduct record.
Read the consent agreement summary.
The consent agreement sets out sexual misconduct towards two female employees.
The harassment involved sexual jokes, comments on her appearance, discussion of his sexual activities and sexual innuendo.
The Lawyer also expressed his sexual attraction to BB in explicit terms.
On one occasion, the Lawyer accessed an employee’s work computer without permission to download an image of BB. The Lawyer advised BB that he had done so and that it was because he thought she looked attractive in the photograph.
In October 2022, the Lawyer advised BB that he had taken a surreptitious photograph of her cleavage. BB told the Lawyer that the conversation made her uncomfortable and the Lawyer apologized.
On May 10, 2023, the Lawyer attempted to take a surreptitious video recording of BB underneath her dress. BB caught the Lawyer attempting to film her and became distraught. She requested that the Lawyer delete the video and he complied. BB left the office that afternoon and never returned.
Later that evening, the Lawyer apologized to BB for his misconduct in an email and noted that he was suffering from physical and mental health issues that contributed to his behaviour.
An aggravating factor
The Lawyer has a professional conduct record: in 2017 the Lawyer underwent a Conduct Review for disparaging comments he made online about a client’s ex-wife.
(Mike FRisch)