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by Mike Caswell

North Vancouver securities lawyer William Lorne MacDonald has accepted a 15-year ban from the legal profession after admitting to professional misconduct. The Law Society of British Columbia says that Mr. MacDonald facilitated "unlawful or dishonest" activity, helping others with a market manipulation. Over a six-year period he allowed money to flow through his law firm's trust account in circumstances that the Law Society says were "objectively suspicious."

The 15-year ban for Mr. MacDonald is contained in a news release and undertaking that the Law Society released on Wednesday, Nov. 15. Mr. MacDonald has agreed that he will not work as a lawyer in B.C. or elsewhere for 15 years. Should he apply for reinstatement, he will face a mandatory hearing to determine his fitness to practise law. In accepting the ban, Mr. MacDonald has admitted to the misconduct at issue, which is briefly set out in the undertaking.

The case mostly arose from the activities of two clients, only identified as "JM" and "KT," starting in October, 2012. According to the Law Society, Mr. MacDonald handled share transactions and the transfer of money for those clients. The undertaking provides few details of the transactions, mostly describing them in the legal sense, but it makes it clear that Mr. MacDonald was helping his clients with questionable activity.

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