Revoked For Pattern Of Deceit

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has accepted the revocation of an attorney’s lawv license for misconduct in three matters.

The attorney was an associate in a Milwaukee law firm.

Notably, he engaged in serious misconduct during the course of representing a law firm partner in a real estate matter

Attorney Stubbins was to have filed the foreclosure complaints by October 2009.  He did not do so, however, until July 2011.  During the intervening nearly two years, Attorney Stubbins made multiple misrepresentations regarding the status of the matters, including falsely suggesting that certain actions, such as the service of a complaint, had been accomplished.  By his evasion of certain questions and his misrepresentations, Attorney Stubbins led E.W. to believe that foreclosure actions had been initiated and were proceeding.  Attorney Stubbins, however, filed the two foreclosure complaints in July 2011 only after E.W. had made numerous requests for information about the status of the foreclosure actions.  Shortly after the complaints were filed, E.W. terminated the law firm’s representation on both foreclosure matters and retained other counsel.

As to sanction

As shown by the OLR’s summary of its investigations, Attorney Stubbins’s repeated misrepresentations to his clients, to his law firm, and to opposing counsel; his billing for work that he never performed; his lack of diligence; and his multiple decisions to take legally significant actions (e.g., filing an appeal, settling a lawsuit, etc.) on behalf of his clients without their knowledge or consent demonstrates that Attorney Stubbins does not possess the necessary character to hold a license to practice law in this state.  These were not one or two isolated instances, but rather a pattern of deceitful statements and unethical conduct.

(Mike Frisch)