Armed In The Office

An attorney who failed to respond to a series of client-initiated bar complaints was suspended for two years by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

He had already been suspended for failure to respond to complaints and to pay dues.

When the bar sought responses to the complaints here, the attorney’s response recalls what Davy Crockett said after losing an election in Tennessee: You can go to Hell, I’m going to Texas.

Attorney Moss sent a letter to the OLR saying he would not respond to any grievances.  He enclosed his State Bar membership card to serve as his resignation from the State Bar.

He went to Oregon.

One tidbit involved this observation from a client

In February of 2012, G.G. and K.S. met with Attorney Moss at his Galesville law office.  During the meeting they saw a handgun in Attorney Moss’s lap and in his hand as he was sitting behind his desk.  Attorney Moss told them he was carrying the handgun for protection from people who were hounding him and from clients who stalked and harassed him.

The court rejected the Office of Lawyer Regulation’s call for a shorter suspension

we conclude that the nine-month suspension sought by the OLR and recommended by the referee is an insufficient sanction for Attorney Moss’s misconduct.  Although Attorney Moss had a license to practice law in Wisconsin for only slightly more than three years before his license was suspended, during that short timeframe he engaged in repeated misconduct where he took fees from clients, failed to perform the work for which he was retained, failed to communicate with the clients regarding the status of their matters, and failed to return fees and client files upon request.  The incident in which Attorney Moss was brandishing a handgun during a client meeting is disturbing.  We believe that a two-year suspension of his license to practice law in Wisconsin is a sanction more commensurate with the misconduct at issue in this case. 

The attorney was admitted in 2009. (Mike Frisch)