Milwaukee lawyer denies charges, gets attorney

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A Milwaukee lawyer is denying charges that he improperly billed a client.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation in June charged Thomas Napierala with three counts of misconduct stemming from a client who hired him in 2012, along with another attorney, to challenge an estate matter in Milwaukee County. The OLR also charged the other attorney, Thomas Vaitys, with misconduct.

The OLR alleged that Napierala billed the client, Thomas Agnello, for thousands of dollars in fees that were not reasonably billable to Napierala and were not owed. Agnello also hired Napierala for legal advice on other matters.

The OLR also alleges that Napierala failed to explain that he would also be charging for work done by his staff.

The OLR seeks a public reprimand of Napierala. While that means he would not be banned from practicing, the final decision in his disciplinary case, which will be issued by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, would be publicly available on the state court system’s as well as OLR’s website and sent to his hometown newspaper.

Napierala filed an answer Monday denying that he had committed the three counts of misconduct but also offering two affirmative defenses: 1) Someone else’s actions, over which Napierala had no control, caused the problems outlined in the OLR’s complaint; and 2) the client’s behavior contributed to those problems. Napierala is asking that the complaint be dismissed.

Napierala has hired Michael Crooks of Madison-based Peterson, Johnson & Murray to represent him in the case. Follow @erikastrebel