State high court revokes repeat offender’s law license

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Following years of professional misconduct and suspensions, attorney Joan Boyd had her license to practice law revoked Thursday.

Boyd had filed a petition for the consensual revocation, stating she could not successfully defend against 28 counts of professional misconduct in eight grievance investigations for which the Preliminary Review Committee of the Office of Lawyer Regulation has found cause to proceed, as well as multiple additional allegations of misconduct in connection with seven more grievances that have not yet been fully investigated by the OLR or brought to the PRC for its consideration.

Boyd, who resides in Gillett and practiced in Shawano, was publicly reprimanded in 2000 and 2006. She was suspended for five months in 2008 for failing to provide competent representation. She was suspended again in June 2009, this time for six months, for 13 counts of professional misconduct.

Most recently, in May 2010 Boyd was suspended for an additional 12 months due to 11 additional counts of professional misconduct.

The latest allegations include charges of failing to provide competent representation, charging unreasonable or excessive fees, and failing to refund unearned fees

In agreeing to revoke Boyd’s license, the court wrote, “It is clear from the descriptions of the various representations that Attorney Boyd has engaged in a pattern of serious professional misconduct that has harmed her clients and that she is currently unwilling or unable to conform her conduct to the standards that are required to practice law in this state.”

The court also ordered Boyd to pay $23,799 in restitution to the Wisconsin Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection and to a former client.