Reinstatement hearing set for former Milwaukee attorney

Listen to this article

A hearing has been set for a former Milwaukee attorney’s second bid to get his license reinstated.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court revoked Michael Mandelman’s license to practice law in 2014 for 22 counts of misconduct, including trust-account rule violations, stemming from several client matters. Mandelman, who had a solo criminal-defense and personal-injury practice in Milwaukee, contended that during the time of the misconduct, he was suffering from chronic fatigue connected with Hepatitis C.

The discipline the court doled out was retroactive, allowing Mandelman to petition for a license reinstatement immediately. He did, but the justices denied his petition in 2015, noting that his accomplishments since his license was suspended, including earning a master’s degree in architecture, were not enough either to show that he understands the standards imposed by the bar or that he will conform to them.

Mandelman, a 1979 graduate of Marquette University Law School, made another bid for reinstatement in March, and a hearing on the matter has been set for 9 a.m. on Aug. 31 before referee James Mohr at the Cardozo Room in the Milwaukee Bar Association, 424 E. Wells St. If needed, the hearing will continue at 9 a.m. Sept. 1.

Any interested person may testify at the hearing in support or opposition of Mandelman’s petition for reinstatement.

The revocation from 2014 makes up only part of Mandelman’s lengthy disciplinary history. Since 1990, the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended his license five times and publicly reprimanded him twice.