Eau Claire lawyer faces public reprimand

Listen to this article

Less than a year after the high court dismissed ethical misconduct charges against an Eau Claire lawyer, lawyer-regulators are again alleging that he broke attorney-ethics rules.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation filed a complaint on July 30 alleging that Michael Rajek of the Eau Claire-based firm The Law Office of Michael M. Rajek broke four attorney ethics rules while he was representing an Illinois man in a criminal case in Sawyer County.

According to the charges, Rajek failed to enter a proper fee agreement with the client, failed to act promptly and diligently in representing the client, did not cooperate with the OLR in its investigation of the grievance the client had filed and did not properly terminate his representation of the client by failing to give the client a copy of his file.

The client had been charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor and, in September 2011, hired Rajek in to represent him.

The client’s wife paid Rajek a $5,000 advanced fee, but neither the client nor his wife signed the required written-fee agreement that explained Rajek’s reasons for asking for that fee and the scope of his representation, the OLR alleges.

In 2012, the client pleaded guilty to one of the felony counts and the misdemeanor. The state later dismissed two of the felonies, but they were still read into the record. A judge sentenced the client in 2013 to two years of prison and four years of extended supervision for the remaining felony and nine months of jail time for the misdemeanor.

Rajek told the client that he would file an appeal. However, Rajek failed to file a post-conviction motion in circuit court in a timely manner, so the Court of Appeals dismissed his client’s appeal, according the complaint.

Also, the client wrote a letter to Rajek asking that his case file either be sent to him or his wife. However, the OLR alleges Rajek never sent the file. Moreover, when the client filed a grievance with the OLR about the matter, Rajek did not cooperate with the agency’s requests for information, according to the complaint.

The OLR is asking for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to publicly reprimand Rajek and order him to return the client’s case file.

Rajek, reached Aug. 6, declined to comment on the complaint.

The complaint comes less than a year after the Wisconsin Supreme Court dismissed a complaint the OLR had filed against Rajek in 2014. The justices also dismissed another complaint the agency had filed against him in 1993.

Rajek, who earned his degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law and was admitted to practice law in Wisconsin in 1974, was privately reprimanded in 1986 and publicly reprimanded in 2006.

Rajek has 20 days to respond to the OLR’s complaint once he is served. The Wisconsin Supreme Court will issue a final decision in the matter.

[follow id=”erikastrebel” size=”large” count=”true”