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OLR slaps Milwaukee attorney with second complaint despite pending resignation

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//January 14, 2016//

OLR slaps Milwaukee attorney with second complaint despite pending resignation

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//January 14, 2016//

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A Milwaukee family attorney who is already facing a four-month suspension of his law license and is moving toward giving it up is now threatened with an additional 60-day suspension.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation alleged in a complaint filed Jan. 7 that Thor Templin committed six counts of misconduct related to three clients he represented.

According to the complaint, it took Templin two years to file a lawsuit for a client who had hired him to resolve a property dispute involving the client’s mother’s estate. Moreover, the court dismissed the lawsuit, which he filed twice, because Templin failed to serve the summons and complaint on the defendants in the case.

When the OLR attempted to investigate the matter after the client had filed a grievance, Templin failed to respond to the requests for information until the OLR obtained an order from the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The complaint also alleges that Templin failed to communicate with a client and to provide the client’s file to the client’s daughter, even though the daughter had obtained power of attorney from the client. He only gave up the file, according to the complaint, when the OLR requested it. It took him about eight months to surrender the file.

Also according to the OLR, Templin was hired by a woman to reopen a judgement against her involving damages in a car accident so she could get back her driver’s license. However, he took no immediate action and failed to return the client’s calls. Templin eventually filed a motion to reopen the case, but the motion was rejected by the court because it was not made within a reasonable time.

Templin has 20 days to respond to the complaint. He could not immediately be reached.

The Jan. 7 complaint comes on the heels of an earlier complaint the OLR filed against Templin on Feb. 12, alleging 12 counts of misconduct involving 12 of his clients. Among the motions filed were ones asking for relief from a divorce judgement after the statute of limitations had passed and taking payment from a client even though the client’s deadline to file a claim had already passed.

In that complaint, the OLR is recommending that the state Supreme Court suspend Templin’s license for four months, that he pay $500 in restitution to two of his clients and that he complete six hours of continuing legal education concentrating on civil procedure and appellate practice, according to the complaint.

Templin is in the midst of resigning his license to practice law, according to court records.

Templin earned his law degree from Marquette University and has been licensed in Wisconsin since 2008. He was privately reprimanded in 2011 for failing to communicate with a client.

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