Milwaukee defense attorney asks to give up her law license (UPDATE)

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A suspended Milwaukee criminal defense attorney who is the subject of 14 pending misconduct investigations and multiple filed disciplinary cases is asking the state Supreme Court to revoke her law license.

Bridget Boyle-Saxton, of Boyle Boyle & Boyle SC, stated in a Feb. 4 petition that she “cannot successfully defend [herself] against the professional misconduct” cases that are currently pending against her.

The petition states that she has seven cases that were approved by the Preliminary Review Board, which screens all cases investigated by the Office of Lawyer Regulation. Another seven pending OLR cases have not yet been heard by the board.

Boyle-Saxton’s petition asks that the court revoke her license, effective Jan. 30. It also states that Boyle-Saxton has agreed to pay at least $17,000 for restitution.

The court has not yet addressed the petition.

Boyle-Saxton did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday.

The revocation request is just the latest disciplinary-related woe for the attorney, who has two disciplinary cases pending before the state Supreme Court. She was suspended for six months by the state Supreme Court in December for ignoring clients’ phone calls and not keeping them updated on the status of cases.

Other disciplinary cases brought against her have mainly been focused on her not returning clients’ phone calls, not preparing written fee agreements and trust account violations.

The court noted in its December opinion that Boyle-Saxton “has strenuously avoided taking responsibility for the bulk of the conduct at issue” and has employed a “blame-shifting strategy” when responding to the allegations against her.

OLR attorney Robert Krohn, who filed a brief in January for a case Boyle-Saxton is appealing, wrote that her “dilatory and uncommunicative conduct is clearly a pattern, as is her refusal to comply with trust account rules and her repeated failure to prepare fee agreements.”

Boyle-Saxton, however, has said in previous interviews that much of the misconduct that has been brought forward came from a time in which she was dealing with a debilitating medical condition, from which she has since recovered.

She was barred from practicing in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2012 after she abandoned a client and did not respond to a judge’s order to show cause, and was suspended from practicing law for 60 days.

Boyle-Saxton was privately reprimanded in 2008 for not filing a writ for 11 months, as well as failing to respond to the same client’s calls, emails and letters for more than 20 months. Follow @eheisigWLJ