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Referee: High court should revoke Madison-area attorney’s license

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//August 1, 2018//

Referee: High court should revoke Madison-area attorney’s license

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//August 1, 2018//

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A referee is recommending that the Wisconsin Supreme Court revoke the license of a Middleton attorney who pleaded guilty last year to making a false declaration in a bankruptcy matter.

The recommendation stems from an Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint filed in July 2015 alleging Patrick Sweeney committed five counts of misconduct, including that he practiced law while his license had been suspended and failed to pay filing fees in a bankruptcy case even though he had been ordered by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Clerk to do so.

The OLR had also alleged that Sweeney misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars belonging to companies he had part ownership in. He told his partners he was using the money as a loan for a client when he instead used it for personal expenses.

The OLR sought the revocation of Sweeney’s law license, meaning he would be indefinitely banned from practicing law in Wisconsin but would be able to apply for reinstatement after five years.

About a year later, the allegations landed Sweeney in federal court, where a grand jury indicted Sweeney on charges that included wire fraud and identity theft.

As part of a plea deal he took in July 2017, Sweeney pleaded guilty to filing the false declaration in the bankruptcy proceeding and the court dismissed the wire fraud and identity theft charges. Sweeney was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $481,970 in restitution.

The disciplinary case, however, continues. Sweeney initially denied the allegations in the complaint in an answer he filed in November 2015. But in January, he and the OLR agreed to reach a stipulation on the allegations in the complaint and submit briefs on what sanction ought to be imposed.

On Sunday, the OLR and Sweeney filed a stipulation in which Sweeney pleaded no contest to all the allegations in the complaint. They also agreed that the record in the federal criminal case would become part of the factual record on which the court-appointed referee in the case, James Boll, would base his recommendations.

While the OLR remained firm on its request for Sweeney’s license to be revoked, Sweeney contended that the conduct he admitted to warranted a yearlong license suspension.

Boll disagreed with Sweeney in a report filed Monday. He recommended that Sweeney’s license be suspended and that the high court order Sweeney to comply with the restitution order issued in the federal criminal case.

In his report, Boll noted that some of Sweeney’s statements in his brief arguing for a yearlong suspension showed that Sweeney did not feel that his misconduct was serious.

Boll wrote that he recommended that the justices revoke Sweeney’s license not only as a deterrent and to protect the courts and legal system but also to “impress upon him the seriousness of his conduct and the need for him to take personal responsibility for his conduct.”

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