A Kelowna lawyer has been fined $20,000 by his profession’s regulator for misconduct and a “heavy-handed approach” to managing trust funds. Greg Anthony Alfonso pleaded guilty to eight counts of misconduct spanning three years between 2016 and 2019 and agreed to the sentence, according to a ruling by the K.B.E. Law Society. The ruling states that Alfonso accepted two gifts totaling $60,000 from clients without providing legal advice, which is prohibited by the regulator unless the client has obtained independent legal advice. “The committee finds it self-evident that a gift of $30,000 cannot be characterized as ‘nominal.’ The rule requires a lawyer to take precautions to ask and encourage the client to get independent legal advice before making a gift of this size. The defendant did not,” the ruling said. Other admissible allegations of misconduct include the way Alfonso managed trust accounts, with the Law Society saying he treated them as “his personal deposit account”. On several occasions, Alfonso failed to withdraw money from trust accounts when needed and paid personal expenses from them. “Fiduciary accounting rules are in place to ensure that lawyers properly handle and protect client property, while allowing for the speedy completion of various types of transactions,” the ruling said. “The public has a reasonable expectation that lawyers delivering trust assets will strictly comply with rules designed to protect clients, given the risk of loss if the rules are not followed. Respondent demonstrated a capricious approach to trust account management and a misunderstanding of the purpose of this tool.” Alfonso, who practiced law for more than three decades and operated his own private practice for more than 20 years, settled with the Law Society and agreed to pay $20,000 in penalties and $3,500 in legal fees.
