The LSBC says Stuart Zukerman's misconduct spans more than two decades
A family law lawyer in Surrey, British Columbia, resigned his Law Society of BC membership after admitting to more than two decades of sexual misconduct, including taking surreptitious photographs of an employee’s cleavage and penning a confessional letter about his sexual and romantic feelings towards another employee.
Under a consent agreement with the law society, Stuart Zukerman of Zukerman Law will not practise law for five years; apply for membership to any other law society without first advising the LSBC; work in any capacity for any lawyer or law firm in Canada without first obtaining the consent of LSBC’s executive director.
In September 2023, Zukerman also promised the LSBC he would not be alone with any person who identifies as female while practising law. The LSBC said this rule was in place while the law society was investigating a complaint from a lawyer previously employed at Zukerman’s firm and would stay in place until Zukerman’s resignation on Nov. 30.
Zukerman told Canadian Lawyer in a statement on Thursday that he had taken strong prescription narcotics for medical issues two hours before he attempted to record a video up a female employee’s dress in 2023 – an incident that prompted the resignation of other female employees at the firm. “I make no excuse for the single attempted voyeurism incident and I profusely apologized to the victim and other firm members affected by that,” Zukerman said.
“These regrettable events not only impacted the victims of my admitted misconduct but has obviously impacted my spouse and family, my firm staff and lawyers and the press' attempts to inflate this to a situation of ‘decades of abuse’ has resulted in hate mail and hate calls and messages to me and my firm including antisemitic attacks,” Zukerman added.
In its summary of the consent agreement, the LSBC said its investigation “uncovered that the lawyer created, promoted or encouraged a highly sexualized, intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment at the firm.”
Zukerman had written in a LinkedIn post two weeks ago that he was retiring from his practice in November “while I am still youthful enough to enjoy life with my loving and supportive family without carrying the stress of client files and being weighed down by that and firm management.”
He thanked his wife, associates, and staff, noted he was struggling with health issues, and said he hoped to “work up the courage to do some open mic stand up comedy at some point.”
Zukerman launched his firm in 2011 and occasionally commented on family law issues for local media outlets.
Law firm staff told the LSBC that the lawyer frequently made sexually-charged jokes, bragged about sexual encounters, and commented on staff or job candidates’ appearances. Staff members also said Zukerman was more likely to offer promotions and higher bonuses to employees who went along with his banter. Zukerman did not change his behaviour despite multiple informal complaints by staff.
The LSBC found that Zukerman once touched an employee’s buttocks while she stood on a ladder painting. In 2014, Zukerman wrote a letter to the employee confessing his sexual and romantic feelings towards her and asked her if she would leave her family to be with him. He wrote her another letter even after she refused his advances.
The LSBC said Zukerman once accessed an employee’s computer without their permission to download a picture of BB, another female employee. He later told BB he did it because he thought she looked attractive in the picture.
He confessed to BB that he had surreptitiously taken a photo of her cleavage. In May 2023, he attempted to take a video recording underneath BB’s dress. BB asked Zukerman to delete the video, and he complied. She left the office that afternoon and never returned, and three other female employees resigned because of the incident.
Zukerman said Thursday that he had apologized for these incidents and that both staff members mentioned in the LSBC’s findings worked with him for years. He said one of the staff members agreed to stay with the firm after he matched employment terms offered by other prospective employers.
The LSBC said that during its investigation, Zukerman provided a medical report stating that his physical and medical condition contributed to the upskirt video incident. The law society noted Zukerman was cooperative with the investigation, admitted he committed misconduct, and proactively addressed his health issues.
In 2017, Zukerman underwent a conduct review with the law society after he made disparaging comments online about a client’s ex-wife.
The same year, Zukerman was featured in a LinkedIn Pulse article about providing his staff with an eight-week meditation course, saying family law lawyers often take on the stress of their clients and find it difficult to separate their professional and personal lives.
Sara Forte, founder of Surrey and Calgary-based labour and employment firm Forte Law, told Canadian Lawyer on Thursday that Zukerman’s case illustrates that “sexual harassment in law firms is still happening” and that her firm is contacted by individuals experience sexual harassment in the legal industry.
“Sexual harassment is common across all kinds of workplaces,” Forte says. “But there's been studies that have shown that in workplaces where there's a significant power imbalance between people, that that is particularly high risk for sexual harassment, and that's definitely the case in law firms.”
Asked for comment, the LSBC directed Canadian Lawyer to its equity advisor, who the law society said is available to help lawyers, articled students, law students, paralegals, and support staff who have experienced or witnessed discrimination or harassment.
