Former Jim Doyle legal counsel has law license revoked

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Former Gov. Jim Doyle’s chief legal counsel and deputy chief had his Wisconsin law license revoked on Wednesday.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court accepted Stanley Whitmore Davis’ amended petition for consensual license revocation and ordered him to pay $19,000 in restitution for his misconduct.

The opinion said Davis was the subject of an Office of Lawyer Regulation disciplinary complaint alleging 11 counts of misconduct, as well as two pending grievances under investigation by the OLR.

His disciplinary history includes a one-year suspension in June 2020 for taking clients’ money without doing the work he had promised, lying to clients and practicing law while his license was suspended.

In May of 2020, Davis attempted to resolve all of his pending disciplinary matters, including the complaint that resulted in the one-year suspension, by filing a petition for revocation by consent. The state Supreme Court had already reviewed his first disciplinary matter, so it dismissed his initial petition.

Davis then filed an amended petition for revocation in response to the OLR’s 11-count complaint and two other pending grievances. The complaint charged Davis for practicing without his Wisconsin law license, failing to take necessary actions in clients’ cases and failing to respond to the OLR. The opinion said Davis acknowledged that he couldn’t successfully defend himself against the allegations or the pending grievances.

The OLR supported Davis’ petition for revocation, stating that “Davis misled his clients into thinking he had a valid law license, collected fees, then abandoned them after intermittent work.”

The state Supreme Court agreed that the seriousness of Davis’ actions called for the need to protect the public, the courts and the legal system from repetition of such misconduct.

In addition to having his license revoked, Davis must pay $19,000 in restitution to three clients and $1,497.67 in costs of the proceeding.

Davis resides in Orlando, according to the state Supreme Court opinion. He lists a Madison address for The Davis Group, his law firm, with the State Bar of Wisconsin. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment left at the phone number listed for the firm.

Davis was appointed to serve as deputy chief of staff and chief legal counsel to Doyle in 2003. Follow @“WLJreporter”