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Suspended attorney considers appeal of theft charge

By: Jack Zemlicka, [email protected]//March 13, 2012//

Suspended attorney considers appeal of theft charge

By: Jack Zemlicka, [email protected]//March 13, 2012//

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A suspended Wisconsin attorney is considering an appeal of a sentence handed down by a Milwaukee judge Thursday.

Judge Jeff Conen sentenced former Quarles & Brady LLP lawyer Jeffrey Elverman to five years probation and ordered the attorney to pay $325,000 in restitution.

In December, a jury found Elverman, 52, guilty of theft for stealing money from an elderly client he began representing in 2000.

But according to Elverman’s attorney, Dan Drigot, the victim, 94-year-old Dorothy Phinney, willingly endorsed checks to his client.

“The way the district attorney was unique in that it was a theft charge,” Drigot said. “The issue in trial was did the victim consent to giving the money over because she wrote and signed the checks herself?”

Drigot said Elverman, who left Quarles in 2004 and had his law license suspended in 2008, is considering appealing the sentence, but has not made any decisions.

Clouding the decision to appeal, Drigot said, is a second civil suit pending against Elverman. Attorneys for Phinney sued Elverman in 2009, seeking $600,000 in damages.

The case is scheduled for a status conference on Friday morning before Milwaukee County Circuit Judge William Sosnay.

Drigot is not representing Elverman in the second suit, but said his client is expected to begin repaying money as part of Thursday’s sentence.

Conen granted Elverman work release to meet the restitution schedule that begins on May 1 with payment of $1,500 per month through the end of the year. Payments increase to $2,000 per month in 2013 and $3,000 per month in 2014, until paid in full.

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