SURREY lawyer Mohammud Massood Joomratty has admitted to professional misconduct and agreed to resign from practising law, beginning July 29, the Law Society of British Columbia announced on Thursday.
Joomratty further agreed not to apply for reinstatement with the Law Society or to apply for admission to any other law society or similar entity worldwide for a minimum of 12 years.
If he seeks to apply for reinstatement, Joomratty would be required to appear before a credentials committee and satisfy the committee that he is fit to practise law, including in light of his admitted professional misconduct.
Joomratty admitted to misappropriating $450,000 of his client’s funds; improperly transferring $370,000 of a client’s funds; failing to independently confirm information about his client provided to Service Canada; acting in conflicts of interest without his client’s consent and without advising and ensuring that the client obtained independent legal counsel; and preparing, signing and sealing a misleading letter to a foreign bank that prompted the bank to release the client’s funds to the lawyer’s Canadian trust account, among other situations of misconduct.
In accepting the consent agreement, the Chair of the Law Society’s Discipline Committee considered that the undertaking not to practise law for 12 years falls within the range of sanctions for similar cases, the geographic scope of his undertaking, that Joomratty repaid the funds he misappropriated, that he did not have a prior discipline record, and that the length of the time before he may apply along with the requirement that he would have to satisfy a credentials committee he is fit for reinstatement effectively protects the public.
Further information is available in the consent agreement.