Beaver Dam attorney asking high court to revoke his law license

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A Beaver Dam lawyer is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to revoke his license.

The request stems in part from an Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint filed in September against that lawyer, Richard Steffes of Steffes Law Office, alleging six counts of misconduct stemming from his conduct in a guardianship case in Dodge County.

The agency has alleged that Steffes, who had been appointed a guardian in 1975, took thousands from his ward’s estate and failed to follow a judge’s order calling on him repay the estate and pay the fees of the guardian ad litem that had to be assigned to the guardianship as a result of his conduct. The judge reported Steffes to the OLR.

The OLR asked the court in the complaint to suspend Steffes’ license for three years and ordered him to pay back more than $11,000 to the guardianship account.

Steffes never filed an answer, and the OLR filed a motion in December calling for a default judgment.

But Steffes and the OLR filed paperwork on Feb. 15 in which Steffes asked the court to revoke his license because he could not defend himself from the allegations laid out in the OLR complaint and from allegations stemming from the OLR’s pending investigation into a grievance filed by another client.

According to a report filed by the OLR, that client was a Beaver Dam resident who was the personal representative of her late husband’s estate. She had hired Steffes to act as a probate lawyer for the estate. Steffes filed a inventory report in May 2016 and transferred all the assets to the client.

However, he failed to file paperwork to close the estate, and the client found out last year that the estate had become delinquent because it had not been closed within 18 months. Steffes filed the closing documents on March 27, while his license was suspended for previous misconduct.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will issue a final decision the matter. Should they decide to grant Steffes’ request, he would be banned from practicing, although he could petition the court for reinstatement after five years. Follow @erikastrebel