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ATTORNEY disciplinary
proceeding. Attorney's
License revoked.
¶1 PER CURIAM. Attorney Anne E. Brown
has filed a petition for consensual license
revocation under SCR 22.19. Attorney Brown
was admitted to the practice of law in
Wisconsin in 1984. She was privately
reprimanded in 2006 and again in 2007. In
2012 her license to practice law was
suspended for two years as a result of
various trust account violations and failing
to cooperate with the investigation of a
grievance filed with the Office of Lawyer
Regulation (OLR). In re Disciplinary
Proceedings Against Brown, 2012 WI 51, 340
Wis. 2d 527, 814 N.W.2d 172. Her license
remains suspended.
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¶2 Attorney Brown is currently the
subject of six additional OLR investigations
into her conduct. The Preliminary Review
Committee found cause to proceed on 26
counts of misconduct arising out of the six
investigations. The alleged misconduct
includes instances where Attorney Brown
sought and received advanced fees, did not
follow the advanced fee alternatives in SCR
20:1.15(b)(4m), did little or nothing for
her clients and discontinued contact with
them, failed to provide written fee
agreements as required, failed to respond to
requests for accountings of advanced fees,
failed to refund unearned advanced fees,
failed to timely file documents in a divorce
case, and failed to timely respond to the
OLR's investigative inquiries.
¶3 Attorney Brown admits that she
cannot successfully defend against the
allegations of the grievance
investigations. The OLR supports Attorney
Brown's petition for consensual license
revocation. The OLR asks that Attorney
Brown be ordered to make restitution in
favor of five clients, and to the extent
that the State Bar of Wisconsin Lawyers'
Fund for Client Protection (the Fund) has
reimbursed any of those clients, then the
Fund should be so reimbursed. The OLR does
not seek an assessment of costs.
¶4 We determine that the petition for
consensual license revocation should be
granted and that Attorney Brown's license to
practice law should be revoked effective the
date of this order.
¶5 IT IS ORDERED that the license of
Anne E. Brown to practice law in Wisconsin
is revoked effective the date of this order.
¶6 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Anne E.
Brown shall comply with the provisions of
SCR 22.26 concerning the duties of an
attorney whose license to practice law has
been revoked, to the extent she has not
already done so.
¶7 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that within 60
days of the date of this order Anne E. Brown
shall make restitution to the following
clients. To the extent that the State Bar
of Wisconsin Lawyers' Fund for Client
Protection has reimbursed any client at the
time restitution is paid, then the Fund
shall be so reimbursed:
In favor of Client J.G.:
$2,500
In favor of Client D.W.:
$6,042.96
In favor of Client J.B.:
$2,500
In favor of Client K.W.:
$2,500
In favor of the Fund (Client K.T.):
$1,850
¶8 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the
Director of the Office of Lawyer Regulation
shall advise the court if there has not been
full compliance with all conditions of this
order.
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