High court suspends Kenosha attorney’s license for 18 months

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court has suspended a Kenosha attorney’s license for 18 months over five charges of misconduct, including charges that he had deposited thousands of dollars of his firm’s money in his personal bank account.

Friday’s disciplinary action stems from a complaint that OLR filed on Jan. 7 alleging that John Hotvedt had, from 2011 to 2014, converted client money belonging to his former law firm, written off client fees that were owed to the firm but paid to him, established a shell company to convert client fees, and decreased his billing rate for clients to advance his own interests.

The complaint stems from Hotvedt’s employment at Lloyd, Phenicie, Lynch, Kelly, Hotvedt & Terry in Burlington. He was a stockholder, director and officer at the firm. Hotvedt had worked there since 2001, when he graduated from law school. After Hotvedt left in May 2014, the firm’s partners discovered billing discrepancies and filed a grievance with the OLR.

The OLR had asked the high court to suspend Hotvedt’s license for two years.

The agency later amended its complaint, and reached a stipulation with Hotvedt. In that, Hotvedt agreed to admit to all the allegations in the amended complaint. Among other things, he admitted to converting more than $173,000 in client money that had belonged to the firm, writing off fees owed to the firm, opening a shell company to convert the money and failing to cooperate with the OLR in its investigation.

Hotvedt and the OLR also agreed that an 18-month suspension would be appropriate. A referee agreed to the length of the suspension but noted that reaching that decision was difficult because the parties had reached a stipulation without a hearing. That meant the referee had not had a chance to observe Hotvedt’s attitude concerning the misconduct.

The high court agreed with the referee’s recommendation Friday and also ordered Hotvedt to pay the OLR for costs of the proceeding. Follow @erikastrebel