Halifax lawyer Lyle Howe has been suspended from practicing law — again.

The head of the provincial lawyer licensing body, the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society, says it received information about Howe and has "several matters under investigation."

A complaints investigation committee "determined it was in the public interest and in the interests of the integrity of the legal profession that Mr. Howe be suspended until further notice," executive director Darrel Pink said Thursday afternoon.

Nature of complaint unknown

Pink declined to reveal the nature of the complaint, except to say the society was required to provide the information to the complaints committee.

In a phone call to CBC News, Howe said he did not know why he had been suspended.

"You may think I've been suspended today, but I've been suspended for 400 years the way white lawyers practice," Howe said Thursday evening.

His suspension was announced online, along with details of a receiver to handle his clients.

Disciplinary hearing ongoing

Howe, who is black, has raised concerns of racial discrimination several times in the last year, most recently in a disciplinary hearing with the society.

The prominent defence lawyer is in the midst of defending himself against allegations of professional misconduct. The hearing resumes Sept. 7.

Howe had been working under conditions imposed in July after the society announced it had received a different unspecified complaint.

Howe previously had his licence suspended after a May 2014 sexual assault conviction. His licence was reinstated after the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal overturned that conviction last year.