Attorney’s license suspended for misconduct in Arizona

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The Wisconsin State Supreme Court has suspended the law license of an Arizona attorney for 60 days.

Michael Strizic graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1975. His license has been suspended for failing to complete continuing-education requirements and not paying dues. The State Bar and Office of Lawyer Regulation list a Mesa, Ariz., address for Strizic, but no telephone number. He was also licensed to practice law in Illinois in 1981. His listing with the Illinois State Bar under the name Allan Strizic lists a Denver, Colo., address, but the phone number listed is no longer his.

He could not be reached by email Friday.

Friday’s discipline stems from an OLR complaint filed in January 2014. The complaint was prompted when the presiding disciplinary judge for the Supreme Court of Arizona reprimanded Strizic in April 2013 for making himself the beneficiary in a client’s will, refusing to cooperate with the investigation of the misconduct and presenting himself to clients as though he was licensed to practice in the state.

Strizic in 2007 notarized a document that named him the trustee of the client’s will, which stated that the woman would leave a condominium, horse trailer, horse and pickup trucks to Strizic’s ex-wife, according to court documents. The client, according to court documents, had multiple sclerosis and was an alcoholic.

The client died three years after Strizic notarized the will, and the woman’s sister tried to have Strizic removed as the trustee in 2010.

By Arizona law, because Strizic was not licensed to practice in the state, the judge could only reprimand him for the misconduct.  The OLR sought to have Strizic’s license revoked, noting that the Arizona judge “would have ordered disbarment” if Strizic had been licensed to practice in that state.

Strizic responded to the complaint, according to court documents, and contended he had not been given timely notice of the Arizona disciplinary investigation and that Arizona’s disciplinary proceedings lacked proof of the misconduct.

The OLR and Strizic reached a stipulation, with Strizic pleading no contest to two counts of misconduct identified by the OLR: violating Arizona’s rules of professional conduct and failing to report the discipline to the OLR. The OLR and Strizic agreed on a 60-day suspension of his law license rather than revocation.

The court-appointed referee also agreed with the stipulation. According to court documents, the OLR, in the stipulation, found evidence that Strizic did not receive notice of the Arizona disciplinary hearing and that the OLR found evidence contradictory to what was found in Arizona’s disciplinary investigation. What that evidence was, however, was not mentioned in the stipulation, according to the court’s decision.

The high court also ordered Strizic to pay half of the costs of the Wisconsin disciplinary proceeding, or about $773. Follow @erikastrebel