State Supreme Court publicly reprimands lawyer

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a public reprimand Wednesday to lawyer Michael Pierski of Muskego Legal Center LLC for failing to execute the title transfer of real estate in Milwaukee County.

According to the order, Pierski was hired in 2006 to transfer a deceased California couple’s property title into a family trust.

Under the terms of the decedents’ wills, their Wisconsin property was to pass to a family trust.

But Pierski, who had been privately reprimanded by the Supreme Court in 2003, failed to execute the probate proceeding, according to the order, and ignored client inquiries for several months after taking the case.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation filed a complaint in 2010, alleging three counts of misconduct, including failure to act with reasonable diligence, failure to respond to a client’s request for information and failure to respond to the initial grievance filed by the client.

According to the order, Pierski argued for a second private reprimand, but the OLR referee said the attorney’s prior disciplinary history warranted a progressive punishment.

The referee also said, according to the order, Pierski failed to cooperate with OLR investigators in both disciplinary matters and ignored his responsibility as an attorney to respond to a client grievance in a timely manner.

The referee said there was no improper motive in the most recent case, however, for failing to handle the probate proceeding or responding to OLR inquires. He said Pierski “simply did not recognize the urgency and his responsibility to do so.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed with the OLR recommendation of a public reprimand and also assessed $5,179.43 in costs of the proceeding to Pierski.