In April 1991, Attorney Christopher L. O'Byrne was retained by an agent of an out-of-state company to obtain Certificates of Disposal from a Wisconsin company relating to the disposal of two gas cylinders.

In November 1991, O'Byrne copied the agent on a letter purportedly sent to an Ozaukee County Circuit Court Judge. In that letter, O'Byrne stated "my client has requested that I provide to you our request for full and timely consideration of the current summary judgment motion pending before you. The situation of both parties makes it imperative that this matter reach a conclusion as soon as possible." This letter also made reference to an Ozaukee Circuit Court file number for the litigation.

In or about April or May 1992, O'Byrne advised the agent that a hearing would take place on the summary judgment motion in September 1992. In August 1992, the agent wrote O'Byrne regarding arrangements for the September hearing. O'Byrne did not reply to this letter. In October 1992, the agent again wrote O'Byrne requesting information about the outcome of the September hearing. O'Byrne failed to respond to this letter as well. In addition, during this same period, the agent made several telephone calls to which O'Byrne failed to respond.

In November 1992, the agent's local attorney wrote O'Byrne requesting information on the status of the case. O'Byrne did not respond to this letter until April 1993, when he telephoned the attorney and told him that he would provide a report on the matter. According to the attorney, O'Byrne also informed him that the September hearing was successful. However, O'Byrne never sent such a report and the agent filed a grievance.

In his initial response to the grievance, O'Byrne admitted that he had failed to communicate with his client. In this response, O'Byrne stated that he did not respond to the agent's requests because "there were no significant developments to report."

However, when Board staff checked on the status of the case with the Ozaukee County Clerk of Circuit Courts, staff discovered that the case number cited by O'Byrne in his letter purportedly sent to the judge, and copied to his client, had no relation to the client's case. Further investigation revealed that there was such a case pending in the Ozaukee courts, but that this case was not filed until February 6, 1992 and that it was before a different judge than the one cited in the November 1991 letter. Investigation of the court file in this case also revealed that the entire file consisted of the complaint, an answer and a Scheduling Conference Notice set for July 1993. There was no mention of any summary judgment motion or of a hearing scheduled for September 1992.

When O'Byrne was asked to respond to these apparent discrepancies, he admitted that he had purposefully misled his client as to his work on the matter. O'Byrne also admitted that the November 1991 letter was never sent to the judge and that he copied his client on the fabricated letter in order to satisfy the client's inquiries as to the status of the matter. O'Byrne further admitted that no summary judgment motion was ever filed and that he discussed with his client a September 1992 hearing which was never scheduled and never took place. O'Byrne stated that he reported falsely to his client in the hope of bringing the matter to a successful resolution without admitting that he had not pursued the matter as he had represented. It appears that the case is still pending, although the Wisconsin company has gone out of business and its assets are under the control of another entity.

The Board concluded that O'Byrne's misrepresentations to his client about the status of the case and his fabrication of a letter to a judge in order to cover up his failure to pursue the matter, constituted conduct involving dishonesty and misrepresentation, in violation of SCR 20:8.4(c). The Board further found that O'Byrne's failure to disclose the fact that there was no September 1992 hearing in his response to the grievance constituted a failure to disclose facts necessary to correct a misapprehension, in violation of SCR 20:8.1(b), and a failure to fully and fairly disclose all facts and circumstances pertaining to a Board investigation, in violation of SCR 22.07(2). Finally, the Board concluded that O'Byrne's failure to respond to his client's reasonable requests for information for a period of approximately eight months, constituted a failure to communicate with a client, in violation, of SCR 20:1.4(a). O'Byrne has no prior disciplinary history.

In another matter, O'Byrne told a different client that he would handle the filing of that client's personal bankruptcy. In August 1992, O'Byrne met with the client and executed the documents for filing the bankruptcy. Shortly thereafter, the client informed O'Byrne that some of his creditors had begun to file garnishment actions against his wages. O'Byrne told the client that the bankruptcy would soon be filed, but took no such actions. In November 1992, O'Byrne had still failed to file the bankruptcy and it became necessary for the client to re-execute the bankruptcy documents. At that same time, O'Byrne also wrote a letter to his client's employer stating that the bankruptcy action had been filed. However, no such action had yet taken place.

For the next several months, the client continued to contact O'Byrne concerning the filing of the bankruptcy petition. In January 1993, O'Byrne informed the client that the petition had been filed, but was returned because of an error in the petition's matrix. O'Byrne now admits that this was a misrepresentation and that he had not then filed the petition. Finally, in May 1993, the client retained a new attorney and discovered that O'Byrne had taken no actions toward filing the client's bankruptcy petition.

In this matter, the Board determined that O'Byrne had failed to act with reasonable diligence in promptness in representing a client, in violation of SCR 20:1.3, by failing to file the client's bankruptcy petition for a period of seven months. The Board also found that O'Byrne's misrepresentations to his client and to his client's employer concerning the filing of the bankruptcy constituted conduct involving dishonesty and misrepresentation, in violation of SCR 20:8.4(c).

In accordance with SCR 21.09(2), the Board of Attorneys Professional Responsibility does hereby publicly reprimand Attorney Christopher L. O'Byrne, of Port Washington.