In a recent notice posted on its website, the governing body for lawyers in Alberta announced Gavin McNeill Grant can no longer practice in the Province.
While making the announcement, The Law Society said it convened a special meeting of its Benchers and determined Grant should be disbarred “effective immediately.”
The notice said Grant resides in Thailand and has practised in Alberta and Ontario.
It said: “On Nov. 30, 2021, Mr. Grant was disbarred by the Law Society of Ontario … for professional misconduct including: propositioning a potential client as she tried to retain his legal services; sexually harassing an employee; purchasing cocaine from a client and subsequently consuming it with the same employee who had been subject to harassing; hosting parties at his office outside of business hours during which he provided alcohol and drugs to minors; engaging in sexual acts with a former client and her friend, who were both minors; and assaulting his domestic partner.”
Five years ago Grant, then 49, agreed to having his Ontario license to practice suspended until a full disciplinary hearing could be convened.
During the hearing, it was disclosed that the Owen Sound-area lawyer was addicted to cocaine and took part in a drug-fueled threesome with a 17-year-old client and her intellectually challenged girlfriend.
Discipline Counsel Elaine Strosberg leveled allegations against Grant, including sexually and physically assaulting a former, 42-year-old girlfriend-client in Florence, Italy, in the spring of 2018 and unrestrained cocaine use.
The 17-year-old gave birth to their baby son on March 29, 2017, after Grant had worked as duty counsel and got her release in June 2016 in Owen Sound. Later, Grant was confirmed as the father.
The hearing heard Law Society of Ontario investigator Brian Borg interviewed Grant’s former 42-year-old girlfriend-client who had an off-and-on, four-year relationship with the lawyer that began when she sought legal advice in 2014.
The relationship ended on May 31, 2018, when, while on vacation in Florence, the woman got upset at him for asking a waiter for cocaine.
The couple got back to the hotel where he wanted to have sex but she declined. Violence started and the woman suffered a dislocated jaw, sprained ankle and a body “covered in bruises,” Borg alleged.
Grant admitted he struggled with cocaine addiction for years and had his Alberta license suspended for one year for drug use between 2005 and 2010, when he came back to Ontario.
