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Ex-Milwaukee attorney to present case for reinstatement

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//October 16, 2017//

Ex-Milwaukee attorney to present case for reinstatement

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//October 16, 2017//

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A former Milwaukee lawyer will be presenting evidence at a hearing next month that his license should be reinstated.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Patrick Cooper’s license for three years in 2007 over 35 counts of misconduct. The allegations included that he had committed various trust-account violations, told a client her wrongful-termination case was proceeding when he had never filed it, deposited $13,000 in client money in his personal account instead of a trust account and failed to cooperate with the Office of Lawyer Regulation’s investigation of his misconduct.

In 2013, the court suspended Cooper’s license again, this time for two years over 42 counts of misconduct. The allegations included that he failed to communicate with his clients and explain matters to them, failed to turn over files to the clients that owned them or counsel that was succeeding him and failing to follow an order issued by an administrative law judge. The discipline was made to start at the end of the effective date of the previous suspension because the misconduct had happened around the same time as the conduct that had got Cooper suspended the first time.

Cooper, who graduated from John Marshall Law School in 1992, filed a petition for reinstatement in March. In order for his license to be reinstated, he now must prove by clear and convincing evidence that he has the moral character to practice law in the state, that his resuming practice will not be detrimental to the administration of justice or the public interest and that he has followed the terms of his suspension.

Cooper will present that evidence at a hearing set for 9 a.m. on Nov. 8 in the Mezzanine Level of Offices of Brown and Jones, 757 N. Water St., Milwaukee. He is being represented by the Milwaukee attorney Nate Cade of Cade Law Group.

Any interested party may appear at the hearing and be heard speaking in support or in opposition of Cooper’s petition.

Relevant information may be obtained from Emily E. Kokie, OLR investigator, at the OLR’s toll free telephone number: (877) 315-6941 or Richard Mozinski, OLR retained counsel, at Mozinski & Cashman LLP, Manitowoc, at (920) 684-1234.

After the hearing, the referee in the case, Jonathan Goodman, will issue a recommendation concerning whether Cooper should be reinstated.  The state Supreme Court will review Goodman’s findings and issue a final decision on the matter.

This is not Cooper’s first time asking the court to reinstate his license. His latest attempt came in 2010, but the court dismissed it.

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