Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Pewaukee attorney faces second license revocation

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//April 29, 2019//

Pewaukee attorney faces second license revocation

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//April 29, 2019//

Listen to this article

A Pewaukee attorney is faced with the possibility of seeing his law license revoked a second time.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation filed a complaint on March 25 against Theodore Mazza of the Law Offices of Rummel & Mazza, alleging he broke the state’s attorney-ethics rules 13 times.

In 2008, a Pewaukee man, Jaime Dimas, hired Mazza to handle his affairs while Dimas was incarcerated for his fifth drunken-driving conviction, according to the complaint. Dimas gave Mazza his car keys, some signed blank checks and executed a power of attorney naming Mazza his agent. Dimas believed the power of attorney gave Mazza the ability to pay his bills as well as file and sign federal and state tax returns on Dimas’ behalf, according the OLR.

Instead, Mazza, among other things, neglected Dimas’ affairs and withdrew money from Dimas’ account for his own use or the use of people other than Dimas, transferring the money into Mazza’s business or personal account – even after Dimas had been released from jail – and asked him to stop being his financial power of attorney, according to the complaint.

In 2016, Dimas filed a grievance against Mazza. When the OLR attempted to investigate, Mazza lied to investigators, telling them he had paid every bill and that he only disbursed money from Dimas’ accounts to pay Dimas’ expenses or himself, according to the complaint.

The remaining eight counts stem from Mazza’s representation of another client, Phyllis Love, who hired him to represent her in a dispute with her landlord. That dispute eventually resulted in an eviction action being filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court.

Mazza failed, among other things, to have Love sign a written fee agreement that explained the reasons for his $200-an-hour fee, did not explain the scope of his representation and did not explain that he would also bill Love for phone calls with himself and his non-lawyer assistant, according to the complaint.

The OLR is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to revoke Mazza’s license, meaning he would be banned from practicing law indefinitely (although, after five years, Mazza would be able to petition the court for reinstatement.)

The OLR is also asking the justices to order Mazza to pay more than $19,000 in restitution to Dimas and $600 to Love.
Mazza is represented by Jeremy Levinson of the Milwaukee firm Halling & Cayo and has not responded to the complaint, according to court records.

Mazza, who earned his law degree from Marquette University Law School in 1965, was indefinitely suspended from practice in 1978 for neglecting client matters and misusing client money.

Although the court gave him leave to request reinstatement after one year, Mazza never did.

However, in 1984, the Wisconsin Supreme Court revoked Mazza’s law license over his conviction in 1982 on a criminal charge of conspiracy to commit theft as a party to the crime, in part because of an alcohol addiction. The high court reinstated his license in 2002.

In 2010, the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program named him its Volunteer of the Year for his work with the program after his license was reinstated and for the work he did while his license was revoked to help people overcome substance abuse.

Mazza’s license is in good standing, according the OLR and State Bar websites.

Polls

Should Steven Avery be granted a new evidentiary hearing?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Legal News

See All Legal News

WLJ People

Sea all WLJ People

Opinion Digests