Lawyer faces 60-day suspension for trust account violations

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A Tomahawk lawyer is facing a suspension of his law license.

An Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint filed Monday alleges six counts of trust account violations and asks that the state Supreme Court to suspend James Runyon’s license for 60 days.

According to the complaint, Runyon’s trust account at First Merit Bank was overdrawn numerous times from Sept. 20, 2013 to October 1, 2013. Based on Runyon’s client ledgers and handwritten checks obtained by OLR, there should have been $134,924.09 in the account as of June 27, 2013. But bank records show the trust account balance on that day was $5,944.86.

Runyon, according to the complaint, failed to maintain accurate client ledgers, made disbursements from that account that resulted in a negative balance of $53,772.73 in 14 client ledgers as of Oct. 1 and let five client ledgers become overdrawn in July and August 2013 by $6,759.36.

Also, according to the complaint, in December 2013, Runyon opened a new trust account with River Valley Bank and closed the First Merit Bank trust account. The OLR alleged that he issued 29 checks from the new account without including the client matter and purpose on the memo lines, failed to obtain canceled checks for the account, deposited $8,072.60 in personal checks into the account, and failed to identify the corresponding client matter on deposit slips submitted to the bank.

Runyon earned his law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1978. His license was suspended for one year in 1984 for withholding client fees from his law firm and lying about those fees in a testimony at a John Doe proceeding, according to court documents.

Runyon was also privately reprimanded in 2006.

His license is in good standing, according to the State Bar website.

He could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday. Follow @erikastrebel