High court to hear arguments in case of attorney charged with mishandling money

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court kicks off the year’s oral arguments with three cases, including a disciplinary case in which a Milwaukee lawyer is challenging more than a dozen charges of misconduct.

The high court will hear oral arguments at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the case of Milwaukee attorney Christopher Meisel, who the Office of Lawyer Regulation in March 2015 charged with 15 counts of misconduct.

Meisel, who graduated from Marquette University Law School in 1994, allegedly mishandled more than $175,000 in client money he was supposed to be holding in trust, according to the OLR. The alleged money mishandling occurred from from 2006 to 2008, according to the OLR.

The OLR had asked that Meisel’s license be suspended for three years. After a hearing in January 2015, the OLR decreased its request for discipline to a two-year license suspension, and Meisel argued for a suspension of less than six months with reinstatement requirements such as reports from a certified public accountant and medical monitoring.

However, a referee in July suggested that his license be suspended for two years. Meisel appealed shortly afterward, arguing that the two-year suspension was not warranted given the evidence presented at his disciplinary hearing.

More specifically, he is arguing that the referee did not take into account that he presented sufficient evidence showing that brain cancer, which he was diagnosed with in October 2006, caused him to engage in the misconduct he was charged with.

Meisel has no previous history of professional discipline.

The justices will also hear oral arguments in two other cases on Wednesday.

Up first at 9:45 a.m. will be State v. Lazaro Ozuna, a criminal case in which the court will review two issues. The first is whether a defendant must perfectly follow every probation condition in order to have successfully completed probation. The second involves whether Ozuna’s right to due process was violated when the trial court did not provide him with notice or a hearing before denying him expungement.

Then, at 10:45, the justices are scheduled to hear oral arguments in All Energy Corp. v. Trempeauleau County County Environment & Land Use Committee. The case involves whether the land use committee properly rejected All Energy’s Corp.’s request for a conditional use permit to build a 265-acre frack sand mine in the town of Arcadia.

All oral arguments will be held in the Supreme Court Hearing Room in the state Capitol. Follow @erikastrebel