Mequon lawyer challenging license-suspension recommendation

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A Mequon attorney is challenging a referee’s recommendation that the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspend his license for three months.

The referee’s recommendations stem from a complaint the Office of Lawyer Regulation filed in 2017, charging Vladimir Gorokhovsky of Gorokhovsky Law Office with two counts of misconduct.

The OLR alleges that Gorokhovsky lied to a client in order to get the client to agree to a plea deal and that he lied to a judge during the subsequent plea hearing.

The OLR asked that the high court publicly reprimand him.

Gorokhovsky, who is representing himself, filed an answer asking the court either to find that no rule violations had been committed and dismiss the charges or, should they find rule violations had indeed been committed, to impose only a private reprimand.

Private reprimands and public reprimands are written warnings that don’t involve license suspensions. Private reprimands, though, are kept confidential.

The referee overseeing this case, Dennis Flynn, filed recommendations on Jan. 7 siding with neither party. Instead, he suggested that the court suspend Gorokhovsky’s license for three months, the minimum suspension the high court can impose.

“In order to promote and maintain high standards of conduct in the legal profession and to aid in the efficient administration of justice a suspension of Attorney Gorokovsky’s (sic) law license is the appropriate sanction,” wrote Flynn. “Respondent has already received a license suspension for making false statements to a Court. It would not be prudent to now lesson (sic) the sanction for a similar violation of the Supreme Court Rules.”

The high court previously suspended Gorokhovsky’s license for 60 days in 2013 for two counts of misconduct, including battery and disorderly conduct charges related to the alleged domestic abuse of his wife and lies told to a circuit-court judge in Illinois. The justices also publicly reprimanded him in 2012 and privately reprimanded him in 2009.

Flynn suggested that the justices require Gorokhovsky to complete 10 hours of in-person, continuing-legal-education courses involving attorney ethics.

Gorokhovsky filed notice on Jan. 14 that he is appealing Flynn’s recommendations.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will consider Gorokhovsky’s appeal and issue a final decision in the matter. Follow @erikastrebel