Referee recommends private reprimand, chance to resign for Sheboygan attorney

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A referee is recommending that a former Sheboygan attorney be privately reprimanded and given the chance to resign from the bar.

The discipline at issue stems from an Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint filed in 2015 against Robert Horsch, who has said he is no longer practicing law and is instead a stay-at-home dad.

According to the complaint, Horsch committed three counts of misconduct, including failing to report two convictions from April 2015 to the OLR and the state Supreme Court clerk. The convictions included his fourth drunken-driving conviction.

The OLR had asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to privately reprimand Horsch and require him to participate in drug-abuse and mental-health assessments, submit to drug monitoring for two years and abstain from alcohol and drug use while being monitored.

In a report filed Jan. 20, Referee Richard Esenberg agreed with the OLR, recommending a private reprimand with conditions as outline by the OLR. However, he also recommended that the justices give Horsch 90 days to surrender his law license before those conditions kick in. He also suggested that the conditions need not be put into effect if Horsch decides to resign his license at any time after those 90 days.

Esenberg noted that Horsch, instead of filing an answer to the OLR’s complaint, responded with a letter appearing to admit the OLR’s allegations

“This case could have been avoided if Horsch would have taken clearly delineated steps to remove himself from practice,” Esenberg wrote. Follow @erikastrebel