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March 15, 2023 - 6:00 PM
A veteran Kamloops lawyer has been found to have committed professional misconduct after being in a conflict of interest with several clients.
According to a March 10 Law Society of B.C. decision, Nickolaus Harold MacDonald Weiser facilitated a series of loans to clients from a company he had financial stakes in.
The Law Society also found that Weiser had acted for both the borrower and the lender on one file, and that he'd lent money to clients from a small consumer loan company he owned.
"(Weiser) did not advise his clients of the fact that he asserts a beneficial interest in (the loan company)," the decision reads. "There is no indication that the clients provided consent to the conflict, or that they were advised to or obtained independent legal advice."
According to the decision, in 2009 Weiser set up a small loan company called I Inc. with a couple he'd known for 40 years.
The relationship appears to have soured as he took legal action against them in 2001.
According to the Law Society, in one instance in 2013, Weiser used the loan company to lend another client he was representing in an estate matter $8,000. The decision says he acted on behalf of the clients and the loan company on three separate occasions.
The decision says Weiser got 50 per cent of the profits that the loan company made.
The decision gives a detailed breakdown of the six instances of professional misconduct and his conflict of interest.
The decision also says that between 2014 and 2016 Weiser received $366,545 from the loan company.
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Weiser maintain the money was in the form of a "non-repayable loan" but the Law Society disagreed saying the cash was a loan and lawyers aren't allowed to borrow funds from companies they are representing.
Weiser has been practicing law since 1984 and practiced under the names Webber Weiser McKinley, and Kay and Webber Weiser.
He's recently been in trouble with the regulator and has been accused of using his trust fund to "conceal or disguise" money from an unlicensed cannabis company.
The Law Society says he then ignored more than a dozen phone calls and other correspondence sent to him.
He is also facing another allegation that he practiced law while he was suspended and oversaw a real estate transaction in March 2021. The Law Society says Weiser was suspended at the time for administrative reasons.
The Law Society says Weiser's conduct in the recent matter is a "marked departure from that expected of lawyers."
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Any penalties for professional misconduct will be decided at a later date.
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