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High court grants Madison lawyer’s request for license revocation

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//March 23, 2017//

High court grants Madison lawyer’s request for license revocation

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//March 23, 2017//

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court has revoked a Madison lawyer’s license — at his request.

The justices on Thursday granted Adam Walsh’s petition for consensual revocation of his law license. The petition was a result of allegations of misconduct stemming from two Office of Lawyer Regulation investigations into Walsh’s conduct.

One investigation involved Walsh’s trust account, which the OLR alleges contained substantially less money than it should have in 2014 and 2015. For example, on May 31, 2014, the account contained $50,000 less than Walsh claims he should have been holding for a trust. The OLR also alleges that Walsh withdrew client money from the account but that the money did not appear to be disbursed to clients or other proper recipients.

The other investigation involved the representation of a client attempting to have his felony convictions expunged or pardoned. According to the OLR, the client paid Walsh a $1,500 flat fee but Walsh never told the client he was leaving his law firm and would no longer practice law. The OLR also alleges that Walsh never communicated with the client about the work that had been done in the case and never provided a final accounting of how he had earned the flat fee.

Walsh attempted to voluntarily surrender his license to practice law in June of last year, but the justices put his request on hold because the two investigations were pending. The justices noted Thursday that they would be dismissing that petition in a separate order.

In the petition, which was filed in February, Walsh stated that he could not defend himself against the OLR’s allegations.

“It is clear from the OLR’s summary of misconduct allegations that Attorney Walsh treated his client trust account as if it were a community fund at his constant disposal,” the justices wrote in their per curiam decision Thursday.

The justices also noted in the decision that they were disturbed that Walsh failed to produce the necessary records for the OLR to decide whether any restitution needed to be awarded.

Walsh will have to petition the court for reinstatement of his law license should he decide to practice law again.

Walsh has been admitted to practice law in Wisconsin since 2008. He practiced with the firm Affordable Legal Services of Wisconsin, which he sold in January 2015 but continued working for until November 2015.

The high court privately reprimanded him in 2015 for improperly using a credit card for his client trust account and failing to maintain trust-account records.

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