La Crosse lawyer disciplined for 5th time with license suspension

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court is disciplining a La Crosse lawyer for a fifth time. The latest disciplinary action against Donald Harman is a six-month license suspension stemming from misconduct in a divorce case.

A complaint from the Office of Lawyer Regulation said Harman made improper submissions to a family-court commissioner and disobeyed two court orders handed down in the case, filed in 2016 in La Crosse County. The OLR charged him with three attorney-ethics violations.

The high court decided to suspend Harman’s license for six months starting in January 2020. He also has to pay a $4,400 judgment against him in the divorce case and $7,662.28 in costs from the OLR proceeding.

Harman was previously suspended in 2001 for eight counts of misconduct, including violating trust-accounting rules and failing to keep client matters confidential. He also had three previous public reprimands for failing to act in clients’ best interests, charging excessive fees and committing various trust-account violations.

Harman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Follow @WLJReporter