La Crosse attorney challenging suspension recommendation

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A La Crosse attorney is challenging a referee’s recommendation that his law license be suspended for six months and he pass an exam before being reinstated.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation charged Donald Harman, a lawyer out of La Crosse, in July with violating three lawyer-ethics rules while representing a client in a divorce case in La Crosse County.

According to the allegations, he made improper submissions to a family-court commissioner and disobeyed two court orders.

The OLR is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to suspend Harman’s law license for six months and order Harman to pay a $4,400 contempt judgment he still owes.

The court-appointed referee in the case, Allan Beatty, recommended on Nov. 28 that the justices impose the license suspension the OLR is asking for and require certain conditions to be met in order for Harman’s license to be reinstated, including requiring him to submit to a neuropsychological exam.

Harman notified the court Thursday that he is appealing Beatty’s recommendations. The court will hear arguments from Harman and the OLR before issuing a final decision in the matter.