The profile for the disciplined lawyer is male, relatively experienced and practising alone or in a very small firm. See article by Alice Wooley in the June 17, 2011 Lawyer's Weekly. These are the folks who get in trouble, practising for 40 years or not.

Administrative suspensions differ from disciplinary cases. Admin suspensions are usually for non-payment of fees/insurance and other filings. A large number of disciplinary cases involve the 'ungovernable lawyer' who refuses to co-operate with an investigation or respond to a complaint or perform a task requested by the law society. Often small matters trigger a larger investigation or penalties due to the lawyer just refusing or neglecting to take the law society seriously. These suspensions and licence revocations are for the most part unnecessary. Lots of them centre on failling to keep books and records as required by the law society. If you read the decisions the law society is usually bugging them for answers over many months and these idiots simply fail to take them seriously or the assume that they have the same rights as someone being investigated by police (not so with a regulator).

Poor record keeping is of concern because often sloppy record keeping leads to dishonesty, fraud, misappropriation.

The law society is there to protect the public and respond to complaints and not be ignored by 'experienced' counsel. Often issues relating to sole practiioners relate to lack of resources, burn out, financial problems, mental health and susbstance abuse issues.