State’s high court suspends attorney’s license

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Illinois attorney Tommy Payne received a six-month disciplinary suspension Tuesday from the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The suspension is a reciprocal-discipline action after the Supreme Court of Illinois imposed the same sanction against Payne in September 2011. Under Wisconsin Supreme Court rules, attorneys disciplined in other jurisdictions are required to face the same discipline in Wisconsin. Certain exceptions apply, but none are relevant in this case.

Payne’s suspension in Illinois stems from charges that he failed to respond to a client’s communications and did not return an unearned advance fee. Payne also was supposed to notify the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation of the disciplinary action against him in Illinois; he didn’t.

Payne did not contest the charges. The high court also took note Payne failed to respond to OLR’s complaint.

Payne’s Wisconsin law license has been administratively suspended since the early 1990s for not paying State Bar dues and for failing to meet CLE requirements.