Top lawyer for Milwaukee County sees license reinstated after short administrative suspension

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The top lawyer for Milwaukee County can practice again.

Corporation Counsel Margaret Daun’s law license was suspended on June 16 after she had failed to meet the deadline for certifying she had completed 30 hours of required continuing-legal education in 2018 and 2019.

Daun told the Journal Sentinel she had taken enough courses but hadn’t gotten around to filing the proper paperwork by the Feb. 1 deadline, or during the 60 days of notice from the Board of Bar Examiners about her delinquency. She said that was the result in part of the demands of the county’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

In an email to the Journal Sentinel Thursday, Daun said she had been reinstated to practice law. The confirmation letter from the BBE says she has nine hours of credit that will carry over to the current reporting period.

Duan thanked the BBE for its quick action once she had filed the paperwork and $100 fee.

She also thanked her office for covering for her while she could not do things that would amount to the practice of law, and her clients “for their support and acknowledgment that this had nothing to do with my skill, professionalism, or ethics as an attorney.”

According to the Board of Bar Examiners, about 2% of the state bar’s members receive the administrative suspensions over missing continuing-education certification each year. During such a suspension, a lawyer may not practice law, just as if he or she had been suspended by the Supreme Court for violating lawyers’ rules of professional conduct.

Contact Bruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.