State’s high court hands out attorney discipline

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday handed out a suspension, license revocation and reinstatement.

Racine attorney William F. Mross was given a 60-day suspension for failing to communicate with clients. He was also ordered to pay the cost of court proceedings.

• Attorney Anne E. Brown, who was privately reprimanded in 2006 and 2007 and had her license suspended for two years in 2012 for failing to cooperate in a Office of Lawyer Regulation investigation, had her license revoked.

According to court documents, Brown is the subject of six additional OLR investigations into her conduct.  The Preliminary Review Committee found cause to proceed on 26 counts of misconduct arising out of the six investigations. The alleged misconduct includes instances where Brown sought and received advanced fees, did not follow the advanced fee alternatives in SCR 20:1.15(b)(4m), did little or nothing for her clients and discontinued contact with them, failed to provide written fee agreements as required, failed to respond to requests for accountings of advanced fees, failed to refund unearned advanced fees, failed to timely file documents in a divorce case, and failed to timely respond to the OLR’s investigative inquiries, according to court documents.

• Waukesha County attorney Stephen M. Compton had his license reinstated Friday.

Compton was publicly reprimanded in 2002 for falsely recording the time he worked on a contingency fee case. In 2008, Compton’s license was suspended for 60 days for misconduct related to failing to supervise an inmate performing legal work for him and falsely billing the state public defender for work performed by that inmate.

In 2009, Compton was charged with felony criminal conduct in Walworth County, according to court documents.  He was ultimately convicted of possession of heroin, a Class I felony, and felony bail jumping, a Class H felony.

On March 3, 2010, the OLR filed a motion seeking the summary suspension of Compton’s law license based on the criminal convictions. Compton did not contest the motion, and had his law license suspended on March 16, 2010, according to court documents.

Compton filed a petition for the reinstatement of his law license on March 12, 2012, and has been ordered to pay the costs of the reinstatement proceeding, which were $4,373.03 as of March 11.