Leeland T. Playfair

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Attorney Leeland Playfair was engaged to sell family property at 6 Brentford Road for the Reid siblings. After clients withdrew authority to sell (originally at $130,000) and requested a valuation, the property was nonetheless transferred to third parties for $110,000 without the clients' knowledge or authorization. The attorney never accounted for any proceeds and ceased all communication. The Committee found he had endeavoured to perpetrate a fraud on the clients and committed a serious breach of trust as constructive trustee. It found breaches of Canons I(b), IV(r), IV(s) and VII(b)(ii), but did not find a criminal act proven under Canon III(k). He was found guilty of professional misconduct and struck off the Roll, with costs of $30,000 to the complainant. The attorney was absent throughout the proceedings.

Duties found breached:

• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Property transferred to purchasers without clients' knowledge or permission and contrary to withdrawn authorization
• Sale for $110,000 when no authority given (original authority was $130,000)
• Failure to account for any sums for over 3 years
• Complete failure to communicate with clients despite unchanged contact details
• Breach of trust as constructive trustee - serious defalcation
• Failed to respond to complaint or attend hearings