Sanda Ling King

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

Sanda Ling King, a BC lawyer practising in a high-volume real estate conveyancing partnership (Siebenga & King), admitted professional misconduct under Rule 4-29 for misappropriating client trust funds (totalling about $63,829 across two schedules) by reversing stale-dated cheques and unresolved residual balances and transferring them to the firm's general account through purported fees not properly charged to clients. She also admitted creating false/backdated statements of account to justify the withdrawals and to mislead Law Society auditors during the 2009 and 2012 compliance audits, and falsely certifying two trust reports that no stale-dated cheques existed. The admissions used 'knew or ought to have known' language; the tribunal made no express finding of dishonesty. The Discipline Committee accepted her 10-year undertaking not to practise law in BC and not to apply for reinstatement, with the matter recorded on her professional conduct record. No fine or costs were stated.

Duties found breached:

• No improper use of client money
• Prompt accounting and return of money
• Self-report to the regulator

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct occurred over an extended period (approximately 2009 to 2013)
• Large number of transactions (hundreds of instances) and significant total amounts
• False invoices created and provided to mislead Law Society auditors during the 2009 and 2012 compliance audits
• Misleading the regulator on two trust reports

Mitigating factors:

• Admission of misconduct and acceptance of responsibility
• Expressed remorse in February 2019 letter to investigator
• Retired from practice and gave undertaking not to practise law
• Acted under the direction/guidance of her senior partner Mr. Siebenga
• Cooperation in resolving the citation under Rule 4-29