Attorney says she cannot ‘remain sober while practicing law’

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The state Supreme Court has accepted the resignation of a Merton attorney’s license after she was convicted of her fourth drunken-driving charge.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation petitioned the court in 2013 to publicly reprimand Elizabeth Ewald-Herrick after she pleaded guilty in February 2012 to fourth-offense operating while intoxicated in five years. It also asked the court to impose alcohol monitoring by the Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program.

But Ewald-Herrick – who is still on community supervision from the OWI conviction – told the court that she did “not believe that I can remain sober while practicing law. As a result, I have decided to leave the practice of law,” according to the court’s opinion. She filed her request in February, and the court granted it Thursday. If she wants to be reinstated, according to the court’s opinion, she will have to submit to an Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse evaluation at that time.

The court also publicly reprimanded Ewald-Herrick, because her conviction, “reflected adversely on Attorney Ewald-Herrick’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer in other respects,” according to the per curiam decision.

The court ordered her to pay the OLR $627.33 for the cost of the proceedings, an amount that was reduced from $1,254.65 after she said she was having money problems.

Ewald-Herrick is a graduate of Georgia State University College of Law. She was admitted to the State Bar in 1989.

She could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

Ewald-Herrick was privately reprimanded in October 2008 after she was convicted of her third OWI. Follow @eheisigWLJ