Court slaps Racine attorney with 6-month license suspension

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court has suspended the license of a Racine attorney for six months – tripling the discipline a referee had recommended.

Tuesday’s discipline stems from a complaint filed last year alleging that Robert Baratki had committed nine counts of misconduct, some of which stemmed from his representation of two clients who had hired him to represent them in divorce cases.

The OLR alleged that Baratki, among other things, had sent one client suggestive text messages and made unwanted sexual advances, including lifting up her shirt and kissing her midsection. As for the other client, the complaint alleged that he failed, among other things, to return unearned fees, and failed to notify the court and the client that he was withdrawing from the case.

The OLR also alleged that Baratki had practiced even while his license was suspended for failing to complete legal-education requirements and later failing to cooperate with the OLR in its investigation of his misconduct.

The OLR had asked for Baratki’s license to be suspended for 60 days. Baratki never answered the complaint. The referee in the case, James Winiarski, found him in default and recommended that his license be suspended for the length the OLR had sought and that Baratki pay $487.50 in restitution to a client and the full cost of the proceeding, which was $1,428.93. Baratki did not appeal the decision.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court, in a per curiam decision on Tuesday, agreed with Winiarski on the issues of default judgement, costs and restitution but disagreed with his recommendation for discipline, writing that it was insufficient.

The justices instead added on four more months to the two-month license suspension. Should Baratki want to practice law again after the six-month suspension is up, he will now have to petition the court for reinstatement and present evidence that he is fit to practice.

The court noted that it had already privately reprimanded Baratki twice for similar misconduct and that he had  apparently not learned from from the experience. In 2006, he was reprimanded for having had a consensual sexual relationship with a client after being hired and he was reprimanded again, in 2014, for practicing while his license was suspended for failing to complete continuing-legal-education requirements.

“He abused his position of trust as a lawyer (again), practiced law during a suspension (again), violated the duties attendant to withdrawing from representation of a client, and disregarded his obligation to cooperate with the OLR,” the court wrote. “Given his course of conduct, we deem it imperative that, to resume the practice of law in Wisconsin, Attorney Baratki show this court that he has taken steps to avoid similar misdeeds in the future.” Follow @erikastrebel