Professional Discipline

The Board of Attorneys Professional Responsibility, an arm of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, assists the court in discharging its exclusive constitutional responsibility to supervise the practice of law in this state and to protect the public from acts of professional misconduct by attorneys licensed to practice in Wisconsin. The board is composed of eight lawyers and four nonlawyer members, and its offices are located at Room 410, 110 E. Main St., Madison, WI 53703, and Room 102, 611 N. Broadway, Milwaukee, WI 53202.

Disciplinary proceeding against Thomas K. Archie

On Nov. 15, 1996, the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended the law license of Thomas K. Archie, 36, St. Francis, for one year, pursuant to a stipulation entered into between Archie and the Board of Attorneys Professional Responsibility (BAPR). Archie also was ordered to pay restitution to a client and the cost of the disciplinary proceeding. Archie previously was suspended in June 1995 for six months. Archie had not petitioned for reinstatement and remained suspended at the time of the current disciplinary proceeding.

In 1991 Archie received a $3,300 check in settlement of a client's personal injury claim. Archie disbursed a one-third contingency fee to himself, payment to an ambulance service and $1,170 to the client. He retained $807 with which to pay a medical provider bill. In 1995 the medical provider obtained a judgment against the client, because that bill remained unpaid. Archie was unable to account for the balance of the client's funds.

When he closed his trust account in 1994 upon terminating his law practice, Archie assumed that any remaining funds in that account were fees and disbursed them to himself, including the client's balance. Archie's failure to disburse the balance of the settlement proceeds to the client violated SCR 20:1.15(b). His retention of those funds upon closing his trust account violated SCR 20:8.4(c). Also, his failure to provide the client with a written settlement statement upon concluding the client's matter violated SCR 20:1.5(c).

An audit of Archie's trust account disclosed that approximately $3,125 was unaccounted for regarding four cases, including the above case and two others that were subject of his prior disciplinary proceeding. When winding down his practice and closing his trust account, Archie wrote 12 checks on funds in his trust account payable to himself and to others for personal purposes. None of those checks was attributed to any particular client matter. The audit also showed that Archie had been using his trust account as a personal checking account, in violation of SCR 20:1.15(a), frequently depositing settlement checks on which he wrote checks from his portion of the proceeds to pay various personal expenses.

He also had deposited into his trust account checks for legal fees he already had earned, and then wrote checks on those funds for personal expenses. It was stipulated that Archie retained from the funds remaining in his trust account $2,317, to which he was not entitled, in violation of SCR 20:8.4(c). Additionally, Archie violated SCR 20:1.15(e) by failing to keep appropriate trust account records.

When accepting the parties' stipulation to a one-year suspension, the court noted that Archie's misconduct, in part, repeated similar misconduct for which he previously was disciplined.

Public reprimand of Debra L. Hayes Colcord

On Nov. 1, 1996, Debra L. Hayes Colcord, 34, Wausau, consented to a public reprimand by BAPR.

Colcord represented the plaintiff in a personal injury action. An attorney for certain of the defendants deposed a person who was not a party to the action and was not represented by counsel. As the deponent testified regarding a prior telephone conversation with Colcord, Colcord interjected, "I taped that call by the way." In a separate deposition conducted later in the day, counsel for one of the defendants asked Colcord whether she was going to voluntarily produce the tape to which she had referred during the prior deposition, and Colcord responded, on the record, "There is no tape." Colcord had thought that the earlier deponent was giving untruthful testimony regarding deponent's telephone conversation with Colcord, and Colcord believed that by representing to the deponent that their conversation had been taped, when, in fact, it had not been taped, she might induce more truthful deposition testimony.

BAPR concluded that Colcord violated SCR 20:4.1(a), which states, "In the course of representing a client a lawyer shall not knowingly ... make a false statement of a material fact or law to a third person"; and SCR 20:8.4(c), which prohibits misrepresentation. BAPR publicly reprimanded Colcord in 1994 for violating SCR 20:1.3, 20:3.3(a)(1) and (4), and 20:8.4(c).

Revocation of John G. Kellogg

On Nov. 15, 1996, the Wisconsin Supreme Court granted the petition of John G. Kellogg, 56, Appleton, for revocation of his law license by consent, effective Dec. 1, 1996.

In his petition, Kellogg stated that he could not defend against allegations that he failed to hold client money in trust and comingled client funds with personal funds, contrary to SCR 20:1.15(a); failed to promptly notify clients regarding receipt of their funds and failed to promptly deliver those funds to the clients, contrary to SCR 20:1.15(b); failed to keep complete and accurate records of trust account funds, contrary to SCR 20:1.15(e); provided incomplete and inaccurate trust account records for BAPR's inspection, contrary to SCR 20:1.15(f); falsely certified on State Bar dues statements that he had complied with trust account record-keeping requirements when he had not, contrary to SCR 20:1.15(g); made misrepresentations to BAPR during its investigation, contrary to SCR 22:07(2); and engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, contrary to SCR 20:8.4(c).

Disciplinary proceeding
against Katayoun Mohammad-Zadeh

Effective Dec. 27, 1996, the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended the law license of Katayoun Mohammad-Zadeh, 30, California, for 60 days.

The Wisconsin suspension is based upon the same misconduct for which Mohammad-Zadeh previously had received a 60-day suspension from the Minnesota Supreme Court. While practicing in Minnesota, Mohammad-Zadeh failed to pursue immigration matters for two clients, misrepresented to them that she had filed a petition for permanent residence, and gave them a fabricated receipt for a filing fee purporting to show that a petition had been filed when, in fact, it had not.

Mohammad-Zadeh stipulated that her conduct constituted a failure to pursue the clients' matter with reasonable diligence, contrary to SCR 20:1.3; and misrepresentation, contrary to SCR 20:4.1(a) and SCR 20:8.4(c).