Milwaukee attorney faces public reprimand over ethics violations

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A Milwaukee attorney faces a public reprimand over allegations that she had practiced law even though her license was suspended and had used an improper firm name.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation filed a complaint on July 26 against Diann Burton, alleging she had broken four attorney-ethics rules.

The OLR alleges that Burton’s law license had been administratively suspended since October 2016 for failing to pay mandatory dues and failing to file the OLR certification for her trust account. Nonetheless, she continued giving legal advice to two of her clients and did not notify her other clients, many of whom had bankruptcy cases pending in the Eastern District of Wisconsin. She continued as the counsel on record for various cases, according to the OLR.

Burton also told clients that she was with the firm Pommerening, Vandewalle & Burton even though Burton was a solo practitioner, according the complaint. The OLR also alleges that Burton’s use of the firm’s name violated attorney-ethics rules because a former partner of the firm, Kathryn Vandewalle, had been suspended from practicing law in Wisconsin since 2012 because she had failed to pay mandatory bar dues.

The OLR is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to publicly reprimand Burton, which would not bar her from practicing but make any decision issued in her disciplinary case public.

Burton, who earned her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1997, could not immediately be reached for comment on Aug. 2.

Earlier this year, the high court temporarily suspended Burton’s license for failing to cooperate with the OLR’s investigation of a grievance that had been filed against Burton. Follow @erikastrebel