Sixth Sanction Too Harsh

The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed a referee’s findings of misconduct but reduced the proposed sanction of a one-year suspension to 60 days.

Attorney Toran was admitted to practice law in Wisconsin in 1983. He practices criminal law in Milwaukee. This is his fifth disciplinary proceeding.

The prior matters consist of a series of prior public and private reprimands and a six-month suspension.

In 1989, we suspended Attorney Toran’s license for six months because Attorney Toran arranged to receive cocaine as payment of a portion of legal fees he charged to represent a criminal client.

Here the misconduct involved failure to escrow and return an advanced unearned fee. 

At the beginning of the September 23, 2016 evidentiary hearing, the lawyers informed the referee that Attorney Toran had stipulated to the allegations in the complaint. Accordingly, the only remaining issue was the appropriate sanction.

The attorney sought a reprimand; the Office of Lawyer Regulation viewed the year suspension as unduly harsh.

The court

We agree that a one-year suspension is too long. Indeed, any license suspension of six months or more would require Attorney Toran to formally petition for reinstatement pursuant to SCR 22.28(3), thereby delaying reinstatement. ¶23 A 60-day license suspension is the shortest license suspension we impose.  While no two disciplinary cases present precisely the same circumstances, a 60-day suspension appears most consistent with our prior practice in similar cases.

(Mike Frisch)