Menomonie attorney’s license revoked over 75 counts of misconduct

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court has revoked the license of an attorney accused of 75 counts of misconduct, including being criminally charged with stealing a client’s insurance settlement check.

William Lamb, a solo practitioner in Menomonie, has been licensed to practice law since 1989. He earned his degree from Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Ore. According to the Office of Lawyer Regulation’s website, his license is suspended.

Lamb could not be immediately reached Tuesday at the phone number and email address listed with the State Bar of Wisconsin.

He was privately reprimanded in 1997 for failing to cooperate with a misconduct investigation and failing to appear at interviews for that investigation. Lamb was again privately reprimanded in 2003 for failing to communicate with clients, mishandling fees and client money, and failing to turn over a case file to succeeding counsel.

In 2011, the state’s high court suspended Lamb’s license for 60 days for four client matters in which he failed to communicate with clients, mishandled fees and failed to cooperate with an OLR investigation.

Tuesday’s discipline stems from Lamb’s dealings with 10 of his clients, including Randy Miller, who hired lamb to represent him in a personal injury case against Bristol West Insurance in 2007.

According to the criminal complaint filed in 2014, Lamb allegedly forged Miller’s signature when he received a $10,500 settlement check in 2008 and then deposited it into his personal checking account.

Lamb was criminally charged with theft and two counts of forgery in 2014 by the Dunn County District Attorney’s Office. He faces up to 22 years in prison and $45,000 in fines. A two-day jury trial is set for July.

The OLR initially filed a complaint in 2012 alleging 23 counts of misconduct regarding four clients and filed an amended complaint in 2013, alleging the 75 counts of misconduct. According to the court and OLR, Lamb repeatedly accepted advanced fees from clients, then ignored them, resulting in harm to his clients.

Lamb answered both complaints, admitting some allegations but denying that he had violated any rules of professional conduct. He entered into a stipulation with the OLR, representing himself, withdrawing his answer to the amended complaint and pleading no contest to the 75 counts of misconduct.

A referee agreed with the OLR’s allegations in the amended complaint and recommended that Lamb pay restitution to three clients and to the Wisconsin Lawyer’s Fund for Client Protection, which had already paid five other of his clients.

But Lamb appealed despite entering a stipulation, contending that the facts the referee relied on were incomplete and that during the OLR’s investigation and the Preliminary Review Committee’s determination he was “impaired by alcoholism,” which prevented them from considering the full record when determining the misconduct charges.

But the court rejected Lamb’s appeal, noting that accepting his arguments would undo the stipulation and restart the litigation of his case. The justices also noted that nothing in the record, including Lamb’s emails to the referee, indicated that Lamb did not enter stipulation unknowingly or involuntarily because of his alcoholism.

According to the decision, the OLR’s investigation and the PRC’s review of its results ended in February 2013. Lamb entered into stipulation in November 2013. But in an April 2014 email to the referee, Lamb wrote that he was impaired by alcoholism “until sometime later on in 2012.”

Agreeing with the referee, the justices on Tuesday also ordered Lamb to pay $15,500 in restitution to the client protection fund and pay $4,080 to three clients.

“Only at the eleventh hour,” according to the court’s decision, “when he thought this court was about to decide his case, did Attorney Lamb file a letter to the court offering his ‘sincere apology’ for the hurt he had left in his wake. Although that expression of remorse is a positive step, even then Attorney Lamb still couched his apology in the context of his alcoholism, although he presented no evidence before the referee that alcoholism had caused all or even some of his misconduct. …” Follow @erikastrebel