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Whitefish Bay attorney faces 9-month suspension

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//February 23, 2016//

Whitefish Bay attorney faces 9-month suspension

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//February 23, 2016//

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A Whitefish Bay attorney faces a nine-month suspension of his law license over accusations that he, among other things, mishandled client money.

According to an Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint filed Jan. 13, Matthew Marx is suspected of committing 22 counts of misconduct, including collecting money from, then failing to respond to two clients who hired him to represent them in divorce cases.

In the case of one client, the OLR alleges, Marx collected $3,000 in fees but failed to the return the money to the client after she had fired him. When the OLR inquired about the grievance the client had filed, Marx replied that the money would be returned, according to the complaint. However, he did not return it, and when the OLR subpoenaed Marx’s bank records, it found only $96 of the client’s money in his trust account. When the OLR further questioned him, Marx failed to respond.

In the case of the other client, according to the OLR, Marx accepted a credit-card payment although he did not have a separate trust account for those payments, as required by Wisconsin Supreme Court rules.

Moreover, according to the OLR, Marx paid court fees out of a trust account with no money held in trust for that client and withdrew more than $2,000 for rent, business loans and expenses at a country club. Also, Marx failed to maintain client ledgers and transaction letters for his two trust accounts.

Also, Marx practiced law even though his license had been suspended in March 2014, he failed to inform his clients and the District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin of the suspension and he continued filing documents in district court, according to the OLR.

Marx could not be immediately reached at the number and email address listed at the State Bar and the OLR.

The OLR is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to suspend his license for 9 months.

Marx has been licensed to practice law in Wisconsin since 1996 and graduated from the Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Del. His license is currently suspended for, among other things, failing to pay dues and failing to report completion of requirements concerning continuing legal education. He has not been previously disciplined by the state Supreme Court.

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