Minnesota attorney’s license reinstated in Wisconsin

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A Minnesota attorney with an extensive disciplinary history in that state is allowed to practice in Wisconsin again, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.

Tracy Eichhorn-Hicks was disciplined by the Minnesota Supreme Court in 2000 and 2009, though he also has been subject to multiple private admonishments and probationary periods, according to the court’s per curiam decision. He never reported the discipline to Wisconsin’s Office of Lawyer Regulation, though.

In 2011, the OLR filed a case against him and the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended his license for a year in March 2012 as reciprocal discipline.

Eichhorn-Hicks, of Minneapolis-based Eichhorn-Hicks & Associates, filed a petition for reinstatement in May 2013 and the court granted it Friday. It also ordered him to pay $3,159.37 for the cost of the proceedings.

He was licensed to practice in Wisconsin in 1984, though he has practiced in Minnesota since 1975. According to the court’s opinion, he primarily practices in Minnesota.

Eichhorn-Hicks did not immediately return a phone call Friday.

According to its opinion, the referee who recommended Eichhorn-Hicks be reinstated noted that despite his punishments, Minnesota’s Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility allows the attorney to continue to practice.

“His lengthy career and Minnesota’s reactions to his failures are persuasive evidence that he does ultimately practice within standards sufficient to safely represent the public,” the referee wrote.

According to the opinion, Eichhorn-Hicks “acknowledged that in the past, he probably wasn’t as focused on the rules as he should have been but that recently he had been very careful, and was much more tuned-in to the rules than he had ever been.”

The OLR noted Eichhorn-Hicks may have practiced law while his license was suspended in Wisconsin. This stemmed from his representation of a client for a drunken driving case in Barron County.

Eichhorn-Hicks told the referee in his case that the alleged practice of law was a call to a prosecutor regarding a plea deal. This was done to protect the client’s interests as Eichhorn-Hicks prepared to turn the case over to another attorney.

The court, however, said the attorney did the right thing in that case. Follow @eheisigWLJ