Fox Valley lawyer accused of keeping entire SPD payment for himself

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The Office of Lawyer Regulation is accusing a Fox Valley lawyer of keeping an entire payment from the State Public Defender’s Office for himself, rather than splitting it with an investigator as he was supposed to.

Mark Ditter, who practices law at Ditter Law Offices in Kaukauna, is faced with four counts of misconduct and a 60-day law license suspension for his alleged actions.

The State Public Defender’s Office appointed Ditter to defend two clients in Outagamie County, and the agency approved a $2,464 payment to Ditter for his work in June 2018. The amount included $1,200 to pay an investigator Ditter had hired to help with the cases. The complaint said Ditter never paid the investigator and wouldn’t return calls from the investigator or the SPD about the missing payment until months later.

In December 2018, the SPD sent the investigator his payment directly and withheld $2,400 from Ditter to recoup the money. The OLR then started an investigation into Ditter’s conduct.

The complaint said Ditter never responded to any of the OLR’s inquiries. His law license was suspended in May 2019 for not cooperating with the OLR investigation. In October, his license was also administratively suspended for not paying his bar dues and failing to file a trust account certification.

The OLR is asking for a 60-day law license suspension for Ditter related to the four misconduct charges.

This would be Ditter’s third disciplinary action. He lost his license for 60 days in 1994 for practicing while his license was administratively suspended, and he was privately reprimanded in 1996 for not communicating with a client.

Ditter did not immediately return a request for comment. Follow @WLJReporter