Whitewater attorney agrees to third public reprimand

Listen to this article

A Whitewater attorney has agreed that he should be publicly reprimanded over two charges of misconduct.

The charges stem from a complaint filed Dec. 15 by the Office of Lawyer Regulation against attorney John Dade. According to the complaint, the two charges of misconduct stem from Dade’s representation of a client in two criminal cases in Walworth County.

The OLR had asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to publicly reprimand Dade.

Dade collected an advanced fee from the client but failed to explain in writing what the scope of his representation would be, and while Dade represented that client, he made disbursements from his trust account to pay himself but never gave his client the required notification, according to the OLR.

Dade and the OLR signed a stipulation of facts filed Feb. 17. He has agreed that the facts in OLR’s complaint are true, according to the document. They are asking the high court to accept the stipulation.

This is not Dade’s first run-in with the OLR. He has been reprimanded twice before.