Executive who posed as lawyer ordered by B.C.'s Supreme Court to stop practising law

B.C.'s Supreme Court has issued an order prohibiting one of the top executives at B.C.'s regulator for car sales from practising law and from declaring that she is a lawyer.

Loraine Lee, the chief operating officer for the Vehicle Sales Authority (VSA), was the subject of a petition filed by the law society in May, alleging she had misrepresented herself in her position at the VSA and in her role as a board member for both the Mental Health Review Board and the Passenger Transportation Board.

The petition called for her to be barred from practising law.

According to the petition, Lee was a member of the bar for about seven months beginning in June of 1987.

Lee denied those allegations, and said when she was hired the VSA was fully aware she was not a practising lawyer.

As of Oct. 6, Lee is permanently prohibited from appearing as a lawyer, drawing, revising or settling legal documents and matters, giving legal advice and from representing that she is qualified to practise law until she becomes a member in good standing of the Law Society of B.C.