‘They’ve been wanting my license for years’: Kenosha attorney fires back at OLR complaint

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Kenosha lawyer Walter Stern III is firing back at the Office of Lawyer Regulation after being threatened with a sixth disciplinary action. He said the latest three counts of misconduct that he’s accused of are another unfair attempt by the OLR to take his license.

“They’ve been wanting my license for years,” Stern said. “This is an organization that goes after the little people — people who don’t really matter to them.”

The OLR’s complaint, filed on Jan. 30, charges Stern with one count of misconduct for his involvement in a lawsuit over the estate of Terrill Thomas, a man who died from dehydration while in custody in the Milwaukee County Jail in 2016.

Thomas’ family hired the Seattle law firm Budge & Heipt a few months after Thomas’ death to provide legal guidance and respond to media requests. The firm then hired a Milwaukee attorney to help with local representation. The OLR alleges that Stern told the attorneys working with the family that one of Thomas’ sons had hired him to represent them in proposed litigation against Milwaukee County in 2017.

The complaint said Stern then got in touch with the family’s special administrator for the estate and said he intended to have her replaced.

Stern acknowledged he did talk to the special administrator, saying he did so in the family’s best interest. He said the firm didn’t tell the family who was really representing the estate, and that a Seattle attorney who had no Wisconsin license had been filing in Wisconsin courts.

“You can’t get more dishonest than that,” Stern said. “I approached the person who was the special representative and told her and the lawyer that it was out of line.”

A few days after Stern had spoken to the parties, a lawyer at Budge & Heipt filed a complaint with the OLR. OLR officials then charged Stern with one count of misconduct for communicating directly with the family’s special administrator, despite knowing she had representation.

The two other misconduct violations alleged against Stern involve a client who hired him for representation in several legal matters in 2016. The OLR alleges Stern took $25,000 of the client’s money without recommending the client seek out the advice of independent counsel and without getting his written consent. The agency also charged Stern with a trust-account violation for failing to promptly deliver $2,000 to a doctor who had performed a psychological evaluation.

Stern said the man is a disgruntled client who wants Stern’s money after taking only four years to spend an $800,000 settlement.

“This man got services for $8,000 for two major cases because I felt sorry for him,” Stern said. “He filed a grievance because he’s broke.”

The OLR is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to suspend Stern’s law license for 90 days for the three counts of misconduct, a suspension Stern promises to fight.

“These people are not going to win,” Stern said. “I’m going to fight them to the last draw.”

Stern has been disciplined five other times, most recently in 2013 for money laundering. He lost his law license for two years, but he successfully petitioned to have it reinstated in 2016.

He said he’s now in the midst of retiring and is no longer accepting new cases. Follow @WLJReporter