Racine attorney faces 60-day suspension

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A Racine lawyer faces a two-month license suspension over alleged misconduct, including sending a female client suggestive text messages and lifting up the client’s shirt and kissing her midsection.

According to an Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint filed Wednesday, Robert Baratki engaged in nine counts of misconduct involving two clients who had hired him in divorce cases. He is suspected of making appearances in court on those clients’ behalf even though his law license had been suspended for failing to submit a trust-account certification with his bar dues.

Four of the counts stem from the the case of a Racine woman who had hired Baratki in February 2014 to represent her in a divorce proceeding. Two months later, the OLR alleges, Baratki began sending her “flirty, and sometimes sexual” text messages. The messages, according to the OLR, suggested she would be good at giving “blow jobs” and asked: “Could you stop over for a 10 or 15 minute pawing before (client’s daughter) stops over.”

During one meeting, according to the complaint, Baratki lifted the client’s shirt and kissed her midsection. The client later hired a different lawyer and filed a grievance against Baratki.

When the OLR attempted to start an investigation in response to that grievance, Baratki refused to send complete records of the text messages he had sent and would not respond to the allegation about kissing the client.

Two of the counts against Baratki involve another client who retained him in 2003 to represent her in a divorce. He initially failed to appear at a scheduling conference in her case.

Later, he told the court he no longer represented the client, even though he had failed to file a notice of withdrawal, to ask the court for permission to withdraw from the case and had not notified the client so she could find another lawyer, according to the complaint. Baratki also failed to refund unearned fees to the client.

The remaining counts stem from Baratki’s failure to pay his 2016 bar dues and submit a trust-account certification by Oct. 31, 2015. The bar sent a notice to Baratki on Sept. 30, 2015, warning him that his license would be suspended if those requirements were not fulfilled, according to the complaint. Baratki sent the check late and failed to submit a signed form for the trust-account certification.

Although the bar sent Baratki a letter advising him that his license had been suspended, Baratki continued to practice for several weeks. He filed motions, appeared in court and met clients at least 17 times for nearly a month until his license was reinstated, according to the OLR.

A Racine County Circuit Court judge fined Baratki $500 when he learned Baratki had appeared in his court while his license was suspended. The judge later filed a grievance with the OLR, which attempted to investigate the matter.

The OLR is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to suspend Baratki’s license for two months

Baratki could not be immediately reached Thursday.

Wednesday’s complaint is not the first the OLR has filed against Baratki, who earned his degree from Marquette University Law School in 1990. The Wisconsin Supreme Court privately reprimanded Baratki in 2006 for having a consensual sexual relationship with a client after being hired.

The justices privately reprimanded him again in 2014 for sending a letter to opposing counsel while his license had been suspended for failing to report the completion of continuing-legal education. Follow @erikastrebel