The Ontario lawyer who defended a Prince George nightclub owner accused of violating COVID-19 restrictions has been banned from practicing law in BC.
An order was issued by the court on Sept. 13 after the Law Society of British Columbia sought a judicial order to ban her with a petition filed in March.
"By consent, until she becomes a member in good standing of the Law Society of British Columbia or obtains an interjurisdictional practice permit from the Law Society of British Columbia, Saron Gebresellassi is permanently prohibited and enjoined from engaging in the practice of law in British Columbia as defined in section 1 of the Legal Profession Act," the order reads.
The court also ruled that until she is again a member of the Law Society of British Columbia, she cannot represent herself as being a lawyer and must identify herself as being an Ontario lawyer who cannot practice in BC.
She is prohibited from any practice of law in BC except if she's representing herself, the court also ruled.
Gebresellassi became known in Prince George for defending Linda Allen, director of the Lambda Cabaret club, who was fighting two tickets issued by the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch in September 2021 for alleged violations of COVID-related restrictions. The tickets were issued for "dancing and congregating" and had fines of up to $4,300.
That case was later dismissed.
Gebresellassi has been a practicing lawyer in Ontario since 2014. She was called to the BC bar in April 2021, but voluntarily terminated her licence a few months later.
A national agreement allows lawyers licensed in one province to temporarily practice in another if they meet certain conditions, including that they won't set up a business in that province. According to the society's petition, Gebresellassi opened an office in Campbell River and, according to reporting at the time, may have also campaigned to become the town's mayor, which has a residency requirement. They are also limited to practice up to 100 days.
The law society states that it wrote to Gebresellassi with these concerns, and Gebresellassi responded by asking that all correspondence be in French, which was refused by the law society. In April 2023, the society told Gebresellassi she was prohibited from practising because she had failed or refused to respond to the LSBC's requests for information in a timely manner.
In an affadavit, the law society wrote that Gebresellassi then represented a BC client, took a $10,000 retainer, failed to properly file an application for a hearing yet still billed the client $34,796.54.
Gebresellassi later responded to the society, indicating she had provided only five days of service in 2022 and nine in 2023, and that she had applied to be reinstated to the BC bar but her application was not processed. She also argued that, in reference to her Campbell River office, she was permitted to use it as the B.C. Labour Mobility Act take supremacy over the B.C. Legal Profession Act.
The court rejected her defence and granted the society's petition.
With files from Mark Nielsen
