Lawyer resigns after writing himself into client’s will

A lawyer from Kelowna , B.C who admitted to adding his name to a client’s will and pocketing more than $100,000 of a bequest meant for charity has resigned from the Law Society.

Christopher Roy Penty has given up the right to practice law after admitting to four counts of professional misconduct, according to the law society.

That statement of facts sets out how Penty convinced a dying man to direct three-quarters of an estate worth more than $200,000 toward the lawyer “for his own use absolutely.”

Penty said he met with a man suffering from kidney failure in Kelowna General Hospital in December 2014, and agreed to prepare a will. He was told the dying man wanted all of his money to go to charity, and none to his family. The client couldn’t name a charity to write into the will, but Penty suggested the Kelowna Hospice Foundation — an organization where Penty was the president and a director. The client agreed to leave a quarter of his estate to the hospice foundation and the rest to Penty to be “paid out, in his unfettered discretion, to various charities, persons and organizations of his choosing,” the will reads. The lawyer sold the client’s house and donating more than $50,000 to the hospice foundation, Penty transferred the remaining $153,931.35 into a personal chequing account.