OLR wants attorney to pay full cost of disciplinary proceeding

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The Office of Lawyer Regulation is recommending that a Mequon employment attorney pay more than $2,000 for her disciplinary proceeding.

The OLR charged Janet Heins in December with breaking several lawyer-ethics rules while representing three clients. Among other things, she is accused of failing to participate in the arbitration of a fee dispute with a client and failing to hold settlement money in her trust account for a different client. The OLR responded by seeking a 60-day suspension of Heins’ law license.

Heins and the OLR eventually reached a stipulation in which Heins admitted to the misconduct and the OLR instead requested that Heins be publicly reprimanded and ordered to send a fee dispute with one of her clients to arbitration through the State Bar. The referee in the case, James Mohr, accepted the stipulation last month and found that Heins should pay for the disciplinary proceeding.

The OLR on Monday filed a statement detailing the costs of that proceeding, which is $2,378.02, including $1,589 in counsel fees and expenses, and $789.02 in referee fees and expenses.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will review Mohr’s decision and issue a final decision in the matter. Follow @erikastrebel