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 Gary M. May

On Jan. 27, 1998, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered the law license of Gary M. May, 55, Madison, suspended for 60 days, commencing March 10, 1998, based on a stipulation filed by May and the Board of Attorneys Professional Responsibility (BAPR). May stipulated that a 60-day suspension was appropriate discipline for his repeated failure to timely file state and federal income tax returns. May had pled no contest to two misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to timely file individual state income tax returns. The complaint also alleged that May had failed to timely file state income tax returns for 13 consecutive years. As of July 1997 May owed approximately $50,000 in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties.

May previously consented to a 1995 private reprimand for failing to act with reasonable diligence and promptness in an estate matter and for failing to keep an interested party to that estate reasonably informed. The court found that May's intentional failure to file personal income tax returns violated a standard of conduct for lawyers established by court decision, and therefore violated SCR 20:8.4(f). May also was ordered to pay the costs of the proceeding within 60 days.

Public reprimand of
Carl L. Meissner

On Dec. 31, 1997, Carl Meissner, 65, Marshfield, consented to a public reprimand. The reprimand concerned a personal injury case that Meissner undertook in 1983. His client had suffered an ear drum rupture while attending a college class, and the school's insurer originally offered $2,500 in settlement.

Despite several subsequent inquiries from the insurer, Meissner failed to respond to the settlement offer. Five years later, in 1988, Meissner discussed a potential $6,250 settlement offer with the client, which the client agreed to accept. Meissner failed, however, to follow through with settlement negotiations. For the next nine years, until the client filed a grievance in 1997, Meissner led the client to believe that he had filed a lawsuit and was actively pursuing the matter, when in fact he had not filed suit and the statute of limitations had expired.

BAPR concluded that Meissner neglected a client matter, violating the former rule, SCR 20.32(3) (1984), and the current rule, SCR 20:1.3. Meissner also violated SCR 20:8.4(c) by misrepresenting the status of the matter to the client. In mitigation, BAPR noted that Meissner has practiced law for 38 years with no prior discipline and was forthright in responding to the grievance.

Summary suspension of
Leslie J. Webster

On Jan. 21, 1998, the Wisconsin Supreme Court summarily suspended the law license of Leslie J. Webster, 44, Ellsworth, based on his federal conviction of felony concealment of assets in a bankruptcy. While the supreme court previously had ordered his license summarily suspended, the court stayed that suspension pending disposition of his criminal appeal and until further order of the court. Webster's conviction was affirmed by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and he was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment, fined, and placed on three years' supervised release.