Lawyer found guilty of 17 counts of misconduct: Law Society of Manitoba

A gavel sits on a desk on Feb. 13, 2019. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)

A Manitoba lawyer has been found guilty of 17 counts of professional misconduct by the Law Society of Manitoba, with disciplinary measures to be decided at a later date.

The decision dated June 20, 2025, found Paul Sydney Vyamucharo-Shawa breached the Law Society of Manitoba’s Code of Professional Conduct following hearings that spanned eight months.

A three-person panel found the 67-year-old sole practitioner guilty of offences such as breach of integrity, failure to treat the court with “candour, courtesy and respect,” recording conversations with clients and other lawyers without their consent, and sending abusive or offensive correspondence.

“The panel cannot escape the very distinct impression that Mr. Vyamucharo-Shawa, to this day, lacks insight into the impact his behaviours and his words—spoken or written—have on others in the profession with whom he deals with on a daily basis,” reads part of the 78-page decision.

The charges come after three citations were filed against him between 2022 and 2024, pertaining to a fee dispute with a former client, a real estate transaction and a litigation matter.

Several of the charges pertain to letters he sent to a Court of King’s Bench justice and the society, including asserting that the justice was “continuing to hog and not doing the needful” and was engaging in “needless improper interference with access to justice.”

Vyamucharo-Shawa was previously suspended from practising law for six months in 2019 after pleading guilty to five counts of professional misconduct, according to files with the Law Society of Manitoba.

In 2008, he also pled guilty to four charges of professional misconduct, and in 2000, he pled guilty to nine charges of professional misconduct—with multiple charges relating to misappropriation of nearly $20,000 from a trust account.

In 1999, he accepted a formal caution for breaching a trust condition.

The latest decision says the discipline committee administrator will be contacted to arrange a date for a hearing on sanctions.