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OLR seeks to revoke Oconomowoc attorney’s license

By: Eric Heisig//September 17, 2014//

OLR seeks to revoke Oconomowoc attorney’s license

By: Eric Heisig//September 17, 2014//

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The Office of Lawyer Regulation is asking the state Supreme Court to revoke the law license of a suspended Oconomowoc attorney who is accused of repeatedly taking cases and then ignoring her clients.

Erika Cannaday, a solo practitioner, faces 76 counts of misconduct. The 54-page complaint, filed Monday by the OLR, shows a pattern of taking cases, ignoring client requests, holding client money in an improper account and failing to refund client money after representation was terminated.

The pattern started in 2012, according to the complaint.

Cannaday’s law license has been suspended since November for not cooperating with the OLR’s investigation. She has also not kept up with her continuing legal education requirements.

Cannaday does not refute the allegations. Reached by phone Wednesday, she said she has agreed to stipulate to the OLR’s complaint and not fight the charges. She said she essentially stopped practicing in 2012 when her depression became too much to bear.

“I take responsibility,” Cannaday said. “I don’t think I could have done anything differently in the state I was in.”

According to the OLR’s complaint, Cannaday had missteps in bankruptcy and family law cases. In at least one case, she even tried to appear in front of a judge after her law license was suspended, and the judge notified the OLR.

After essentially abandoning her clients, the OLR made attempts to reach her and have her respond to the complaints that former clients filed against her. Cannaday responded early on, saying that she could not properly respond because of ongoing health issues, but that she would soon. However, she never did, according to the complaint, despite several attempts the OLR made to reach her.

In addition to revoking her license, the OLR is asking the Supreme Court to order Cannaday to pay $4,412 in restitution. Two of the claims against her were resolved by the State Bar-run Wisconsin Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection.

Cannaday said she was partially hospitalized to be treated for her depression. It got so severe, she said, that she had essentially abandoned her law practice and let her license be suspended.

“That’s just as well I can’t practice now,” Cannaday said. “I’m not in a mental health position to be dealing with those [complaints].”

She said she did not refund client money because, in most of those cases, she had done more work than what had been paid to her.

However, she said that while she does not want to lose her law license, she has no plans to practice again anytime in the near future. She said she recently was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and started working part-time at a yoga studio.

“Five years from now I don’t know how I will feel,” Cannaday said, referencing the length of time until a disbarred attorney can petition to have his or her license reinstated.

Cannaday graduated in 2005 from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn.

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