Referee: Milwaukee lawyer should be privately reprimanded, not suspended

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A referee is recommending that a Milwaukee lawyer be privately reprimanded rather than suspended from practicing for six months, as requested by the state’s lawyer-regulation agency.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation charged Benjamin Harris last year with four counts of misconduct stemming from his handling of an Oconto County couple’s lawsuit against an investment adviser. Among other things, the OLR alleges that Harris had failed to provide competent representation, lied to clients in a letter, failed to hold in trust the $5,000 advanced fee the couple had paid him and had paid himself half of that money the day after without having done any work on the matter and without notifying the couple.

The OLR had sought a six-month suspension of Harris’ law license.

But the court-appointed referee in the case, Richard Ninneman, recommended that the Wisconsin Supreme Court dismiss three of the four counts of misconduct and that Harris instead be publicly reprimanded for the remaining trust-account rule violation.

In making that recommendation, the referee found that the OLR had failed to meet its burden of proving that Harris had provided incompetent legal services to the couple and that his actions during the representation were fraudulent and deceitful.

Ninneman noted that his recommendation takes into account Harris’ disciplinary history, which includes two private reprimands, one public reprimand and two licenses suspension. It also takes into account Harris’s testifying that he had paid full restitution to the couple and that he had plans to practice at the Mequon-based Weiss Law Office, where his work would neither give him access to client trust accounts nor require him to negotiate or sign fee agreements. The firm’s founder, Monte Weiss, is representing Harris in the matter, according to court records.

Harris and the OLR have until June 14 to appeal Ninneman’s recommendations. Should they choose to do so, the matter would be reviewed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.