HALIFAX -- The Nova Scotia Barristers' Society has suspended a Halifax lawyer who was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman.
Lyle Howe was convicted by a jury on Saturday of the sexual assault of a 19-year-old woman on March 20, 2011.
Throughout the trial, Crown attorneys argued the victim was impaired and incapacitated and never gave consent, while Howe argued the sexual act was consensual.
Howe was also charged with administering a stupefying drug, but was acquitted on that charge.
Darrel Pink, the executive director of the barristers' society, says a complaints investigation committee met by teleconference Monday and decided to suspend Howe.
Pink says the complaints committee made the decision under its Legal Profession Act based on the conviction.
The act gives the society emergency powers to deal quickly with cases when it is considered to be in the interests of protecting the public.
Pink says that the investigation committee will determine if the matter goes before a formal hearing of the law society.
He says that decision likely won't be taken until after legal proceedings are completed.
The barristers' society has appointed a lawyer, John Rafferty of Truro, N.S., to oversee the transfer of Howe's clients to other defence lawyers.
Howe is the defence lawyer on a number of high-profile cases, including the defence of Blake William Leggette, a Halifax man charged with first-degree murder in the February killing of university student Loretta Saunders.
He is also the lawyer for Trevor John Zinck, former member of the legislature for Dartmouth North, who is to face charges of impaired driving in December.
