Justices suspend Appleton attorney’s license

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court has suspended an Appleton attorney’s license for 15 months.

The disciplinary measure imposed on Ryan Thompson on Tuesday stemmed from an Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint filed last year, alleging 16 counts of misconduct involving his representation of two clients and a company out of Little Chute.

Thompson was alleged to have, among other things, failed to refund unearned fees, lied to the OLR and practiced law even though his license had been suspended for failing to cooperate with an OLR investigation.

At first, Thompson, who represented himself, admitted to most of the allegations but contended that his license should be suspended for 6 months and imposed retroactively from the time he was terminated from his general-counsel role for concealing that his license had been suspended.

Lawyers who are suspended for longer than 6 months must, during a hearing, offer up evidence that they are fit to be reinstated to practice.

Thompson later reached a stipulation with the OLR in which he agreed to the yearlong suspension the OLR had requested in its complaint. The OLR, in turn, agreed that no further restitution was owed to one of the clients, noting that it had already been paid.

However, the referee in the case, James Mohr, recommended in August that the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspend Thompson’s license for 15 months, three months more than what the parties had agreed to, and ordered him to pay restitution to a client.

The justices on Tuesday adopted Mohr’s recommendation, ordering Thompson to pay $1,000 worth of restitution to one of the clients and immediately suspending his license. Follow @erikastrebel