High court suspends Elm Grove lawyer for defrauding company

Listen to this article

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has suspended the license of an Elm Grove lawyer for defrauding a company he started with his friends.

Friday’s discipline stems from an Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint filed Feb. 9 alleging James Schoenecker defrauded GameMaster LLC, a home-entertainment business he and two friends opened together in West Allis.

The OLR alleged two counts of misconduct in its complaint. First, it alleged Schoenecker completed the paperwork to open the business while his license was suspended. The Wisconsin Supreme Court had suspended Shoenecker in August 2011, and the paperwork was completed in 2012, while the suspension was still in effect.

Second, the OLR alleged Schoenecker defrauded the company of more than $150,000 from May 30, 2012 to October 2013, including charging more than $28,000 in personal expenses to the company business account and charging nearly $6,000 in nonbusiness expenses to the company credit card.

The OLR had asked for Shoenecker’s license to be revoked. However, after it reached a stipulation with Shoenecker in September, it dropped the charge involving Shoenecker’s continuing to practice law even though his license had been suspended and instead asked the court to retroactively suspend Schoenecker’s license for a year. A referee recommended the same discipline.

While the court agreed Friday that the year-long suspension was appropriate, it did not make the discipline retroactive. It found that the OLR had not failed to investigate the matter in a timely manner and noted that the court had already warned Schoenecker about his behavior.

“Attorney Schoenecker’s behavior post-dates and runs counter to the clear warning we gave him in 2011 that he must live up to the ethical standards of the profession,” according to Friday’s decision.

The court suspended Schoenecker’s license in 2011 for three years for, among other things, stealing money from his former fiancé, submitting false documents in his own bankruptcy and setting up his own law firm without telling the firm he was already working for.

The justices on Friday also ordered Schoenecker to pay for half of the costs of the disciplinary proceeding. Follow @erikastrebel