OLR seeks revocation of Greenfield attorney’s license

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A Greenfield attorney who was convicted of embezzling more than $80,000 from her employer now faces losing her law license.

Jolie Semancik pleaded no contest in March to a charge of theft of more than $10,000. According to a criminal complaint, Semancik stole $80,674.50 while she was the vice president and operations manager of Mayfair Title Corp. in Wauwatosa. She did this by writing 19 checks to herself, her sister, her mortgage company and a company that worked on her home, the complaint stated.

She was found guilty in April and Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Dennis Moroney sentenced her to four-years probation.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation filed its complaint (PDF) Tuesday to seek revocation of Semancik’s law license. She has not practiced since 2005, when her licensed was suspended for six months for misuse of money intended for trust accounts. She then never applied for reinstatement.

Reached Friday, Semancik said she used to practice family and criminal law. She said she didn’t have any plans to practice law in the near future, which is why the OLR’s complaint came as a surprise. Aside from the suspension, she said she didn’t feel “mentally capable” of acting as a lawyer at that time in her life, which is why she stopped practicing.

She said her crime happened at a time when she “wasn’t in the right frame of mind.” She said money problems came around the same time as a breast cancer diagnosis, and that she made a poor decision to try and fix her money troubles.

“I feel horrible about what happened,” she said, adding that she has been “fully cooperative” since her sentencing.