Would-be criminal lawyer Nadia Guo, who “displayed a remarkable lack of judgement, sensitivity and self-control” as an articling student, is of good enough character to be eligible to practise law, a Law Society tribunal has decided.

“Ms. Guo has learned a very hard lesson,” and she has made some “real and substantive changes,” panel chair Shayne Kert wrote in a 16-page decision released Thursday.

“She has come to understand that being loud and abrasive does not necessarily equate to being an effective advocate, and that restraint can often prove a useful tool for resolving conflict.”

The tribunal’s decision means Guo “upon completion of the qualifications and other requirements as set out in the Law Society Act,” is eligible to be granted a licence to practise. The act requires that a licence be issued only to an applicant who is of good character.

Guo told the Star in an email she is happy with the decision and intends to get her licence, but said she disagreed that her conduct merited a public hearing.

Guo also defended her actions, saying that although she will consider her opinions more strongly in the future, the way she had expressed herself online “echoed the opinions and tone of the lawyers I worked with every single day.”

The tribunal held a hearing last December after the Law Society received four complaints about Guo’s conduct as an articling student for a defence lawyer in Toronto from July to December 2015.

The complaints relate to various incidents, including the fallout of a verbal altercation with court staff in which Guo “flipped” her middle finger at them and ended up arrested for trespassing. Guo was released without charges and maintained it was an illegal arrest. She used “very strong and colourful language” about the incident in online posts.

Some of the complaints addressed Guo’s Twitter account, where she mocked defence lawyers, crown attorneys, court staff and justices of the peace.

Under an animated GIF of a llama blowing a raspberry, Guo wrote that she “wished that it was socially acceptable to spit like this in Crowns faces when they make ‘silly submissions.’”

The Ministry of the Attorney General also complained about Guo, who set up a website called Keep Resisting with a searchable database of “police officers, crown prosecutors & justices responsible for eroding civil liberties in Canada.” An Attorney General assistant deputy wrote she had made “personal, inflammatory and egregious statements about the justice system, and about various individuals involved in it.” The tribunal said the website has been on “hiatus” since the end of 2015.

In her email to the Star, Guo defended the site, saying it merely published the names of people who had been found to have breached the charter rights of an accused person.

“There were no inaccuracies published on the website,” she said.

The issue for the panel was whether Guo “has been able to overcome her previous poor judgement and questionable conduct.”

The panel agreed with Guo’s lawyer, Kris Borg-Olivier, that there are certainly matters of more serious conduct, such as those involving “dishonesty or a lack of integrity” that lead to licensing hearings before the tribunal. But her misconduct “raised significant concerns about her exercise of judgement and her lack of insight into the personal and emotional impact of her comments on other people.”

The panel found Guo had been “insulting, impudent and rude” to court clerks and “disrespectful and rude” to colleagues, and she may also have breached the confidentiality expected in an online forum for criminal lawyers.

“While keeping the police and prosecutors accountable is a matter of public interest, some of her communications around the issue, including her public “naming and shaming,” were insensitive to the feelings of crowns and police and demeaned or tended to undermine the dignity of those people,” the decision states.

“The fact that much of this played out in public, including on Twitter, Craigslist and Reddit, only amplified the seriousness of the conduct, as did the fact that Ms. Guo continued with her behaviour despite receiving significant directions and warnings about her use of social media, and her conduct generally, from her articling principal and other senior lawyers during the material time period.”

Guo finished her articles in mid-2017 and has been working part-time with criminal lawyer John Kaldas, where she has been “receptive to his guidance, encouragement and advice as to the skills and conduct necessary to be successful in the profession.”

Guo also has also worked as an escort, although that fact was not part of the tribunal hearing.

In her letters of apology to two complainants, Guo advised she was sorry for causing any offence and for not being more careful with her words.

“She said that she has come to better understand the rules of civility in the legal profession and that she plans to conduct herself with a much more respectful tone in future,” the decision says.

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“She has indicated that she now recognizes that her comments and communications were unnecessarily aggressive, insensitive and inappropriate, and that, having had “the benefit of having grown up these last three years,” her plan is to use the same drive that fueled her to achieve more significant goals in appropriate ways.”

Guo told the Star she will have more to say in the future about sexism and classism in the legal profession, as well as resistance to diverse opinions and backgrounds within the bar.

“I’ll have more to say on this at a later date,” she said. “I plan on being the most badass criminal defence lawyer this country has ever seen.”