Silence Of The Lamb
The Wisconsin Supreme Court revoked the license of an attorney who had stipulated to misconduct and then sought to avoid the stipulations.
Attorney William R. Lamb has appealed from the report of the referee, Attorney James R. Erickson, which found, based on Attorney Lamb’s stipulation and no contest plea, that Attorney Lamb had engaged in 75 counts of professional misconduct arising out of ten client representations, that his license to practice law in Wisconsin should be revoked, that he should be required to pay restitution in the total amount of $21,580, and that he should be required to pay the full costs of this disciplinary proceeding…
We reject Attorney Lamb’s request that he be relieved of the stipulation he entered so that the matter can be remanded to the referee and Attorney Lamb can now present evidence to “correct the record.” We further conclude that the referee’s factual findings support his conclusions of misconduct on the 75 counts alleged against Attorney Lamb. Given Attorney Lamb’s pervasive pattern of misconduct, including forging his client’s name in order to convert the client’s settlement funds, we determine that it is necessary to revoke Attorney Lamb’s license to practice law in this state.
The court described in detail one of the ten client matters and rejected claims of mitigation
Although Attorney Lamb asserts that he was impaired by his alcoholism during the time that the OLR was conducting its investigation and presenting the results of that investigation to the PRC, he does not claim that his subsequent entry into the stipulation was unknowing or involuntary due to his alcoholism. The time period for the initial investigatory stage of this matter ended, at the very latest, in February 2013 when the OLR filed its amended complaint, adding a number of client representations and alleged ethical violations. Attorney Lamb, however, did not enter into the stipulation until November 2013. He never expressly contends that he was impaired at that time, which is the relevant time period for determining whether he should be granted relief from the stipulation he entered. In a motion Attorney Lamb filed with this court in May 2014, he asserted that he had sought treatment for his alcoholism in 2012. Indeed, in an April 2014 email message to the referee, which the referee treated as an objection to the imposition of costs, Attorney Lamb specifically stated that he had been impaired by his alcoholism “until sometime later on in 2012.” Thus, according to Attorney Lamb’s own admission, his impairment was no longer an impediment to responding to the charges in this matter after the latter part of 2012, a year before he entered into the stipulation. There is simply no basis in the record to conclude that Attorney Lamb’s earlier problems with alcohol dependency rendered his November 2013 decision to enter into the stipulation unknowing or involuntary.
He was admitted in 1989. (Mike Frisch)