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STATE OF WISCONSIN
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IN SUPREME COURT
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In the Matter of Disciplinary Proceedings Against:
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JAMES W. SNYDER,
Attorney
at Law,
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CASE CODE:
30912
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Petitioner.
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CASE NO.: 01-0387-D
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OFFICE OF LAWYER REGULATION’S RECOMMENDATION ON
PETITION FOR CONSENSUAL LICENSE REVOCATION
TO: THE HONORABLE JUSTICES OF
THE
WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT
The Office of Lawyer Regulation (“OLR”)
respectfully recommends that the Court grant the Petition of James W. Snyder
(“Petitioner”), and revoke Petitioner’s license to practice law in Wisconsin.
Petitioner’s Petition for Consensual License Revocation and the
Director’s Summary of Misconduct Allegations Being Investigated are
attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference.
Petitioner was admitted to practice law in Wisconsin on May 18, 1981
(Wisconsin State Bar No. 1014652) and practiced in the Appleton area. Petitioner’s license to practice law in
Wisconsin has been suspended since October 12, 2000.
Petitioner acknowledges that he cannot successfully defend himself
against serious professional misconduct allegations that are summarized in an
attachment to his Petition. Petitioner
has had the benefit of legal representation in this matter.
Petitioner admits his inability to defend against misconduct allegations
in an estate matter. The misconduct
under investigation includes allegations that Petitioner made more than one
dishonest, deceitful filing to the probate court, that he offered false
evidence to that court, that he lied to two charitable beneficiaries in the
matter about funds to which they were entitled and that he accepted payments
for his firm that amounted to more than a tenfold increase over the amount he
had claimed in a filing to the court that his firm had received.
Petitioner filed a compliance affidavit pursuant to SCR 22.26 in which he
indicated that he discontinued the practice of law, effective September 5,
2000, and that he represents no clients in pending matters. Petitioner’s former firm has made full
restitution to the two beneficiaries (the American Lung Association and the
American Cancer Society). The OLR is not requesting a restitution
order in connection with the proposed revocation of Petitioner’s law license.
Under the circumstances, a formal order of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
revoking Petitioner’s license to practice law in Wisconsin is warranted. The OLR respectfully files this Recommendation
in support of Mr. Snyder’s Petition for Consensual License Revocation,
and recommends to the Court that it grant the petition and order the immediate
revocation of Petitioner’s license to practice law in Wisconsin.
The OLR does not seek an assessment of
costs in this matter.
Dated this 6th day of February, 2001.
OFFICE OF LAWYER
REGULATION
By: /s/
WILLIAM
J. WEIGEL
Litigation Counsel
State Bar No. 1010549
ADDRESS:
110 East Main Street, Room 315
Madison, WI 53703
Telephone: (608) 267-7274
Fax: (608) 267-1959
STATE OF WISCONSIN IN SUPREME COURT
IN THE MATTER OF DISCIPLINARY
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST JAMES W.
SNYDER, ATTORNEY AT LAW
CASE
CODE 30912
OFFICE OF LAWYER REGULATION, CASE NO. 01-0387-D
Complainant,
JAMES W. SNYDER,
Respondent.
PETITION FOR CONSENSUAL
LICENSE REVOCATION
TO: THE HONORABLE JUSTICES OF
THE
WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT
Pursuant
to SCR 22.19, I, Attorney James W. Snyder, hereby petition the Court as
follows:
1. I became licensed to practice law in the
State of Wisconsin on May 18, 1981 (State Bar No. 1014652). On October 12, 2000, the Wisconsin Supreme
Court ordered my law license temporarily suspended, effective October 12, 2000
(Exhibit 1 to Appendix A, attached). My
current address is 2942 West Hiawatha Drive, Appleton, Wisconsin 54914-6708.
2. I am the subject of an Office of Lawyer
Regulation (“OLR”) misconduct investigation.
3. A
summary of the misconduct allegations is attached hereto as Director’s Summary
of Misconduct Allegations Being Investigated (Appendix A).
4. I
acknowledge that I cannot successfully defend myself against the professional
misconduct allegations in Appendix A.
5. I
am filing this Petition freely, voluntarily and with the benefit of the advice
of counsel.
ACCORDINGLY,
I hereby petition this Court for consensual license revocation, pursuant to SCR
22.19. Respectfully submitted, this
17th day of January, 2001.
/s/
JAMES W. SNYDER
Petitioner
P.O.
Address:
James W.
Snyder
c/o
Atty. Joseph J. Beisenstein
Menn,
Teetaert & Beisenstein, Ltd.
222
North Oneida Street
P.O. Box
785
Appleton,
WI 54912-0785
(920)
731-6631
STATE OF WISCONSIN IN SUPREME COURT
IN THE MATTER OF DISCIPLINARY
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST JAMES W.
SNYDER, ATTORNEY AT LAW
CASE
CODE 30912
OFFICE OF LAWYER REGULATION, CASE NO. 01-0387-D
Complainant,
JAMES W. SNYDER,
Respondent.
DIRECTOR’S SUMMARY OF MISCONDUCT
ALLEGATIONS BEING INVESTIGATED
BACKGROUND
On October 12, 2000, the Wisconsin Supreme
Court ordered the law license of James W. Snyder (“Petitioner”) temporarily
suspended, effective October 12, 2000 (Exhibit 1). That temporary suspension, sought by the Board of Attorneys
Professional Responsibility (“BAPR”), predecessor-in-interest to the Office of
Lawyer Regulation (“OLR”), was not opposed by Petitioner.
Petitioner has indicated his intent to file
a Petition for Consensual License Revocation acknowledging his inability to
successfully defend against the misconduct allegations being investigated by
the OLR.
SUMMARY OF FACTS AND MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS
1. OLR staff
investigator, Melody Rader-Johnson began conducting an investigation of
Petitioner following the filing of a grievance against him by successor counsel
in an Outagamie County estate matter.
Petitioner had been the original attorney for the estate, but was
removed by the Court after failing to appear at the last of a string of status
hearings ordered by the court. The
grievance investigation originally concerned Petitioner’s possible neglect of
this and other Outagamie County estates.
Moreover, successor counsel in the estate informed BAPR that the file
for the estate contained a check payable to a beneficiary of the estate which
had been written more than a year earlier, but had not yet been sent, even
though Petitioner had informed the court that the check had been forwarded to
that beneficiary.
2. In
December 1998, Petitioner filed with the Register in Probate an Amended Final
Account for the Estate of Pearl Domke (Outagamie County Probate Case No.
95-IN-239) which indicated that distributions had been paid out from the Domke
Estate as follows: $235,012.21 to the personal
representative, $39,168.71 to the American Cancer Society and $39,168.71 to the
American Lung Association. The Amended
Final Account also indicated that Petitioner's firm had received $7,000 in
attorneys fees.
3. On
December 14, 1998, Petitioner filed with the Register in Probate, Receipts and
Releases purportedly signed by representatives from the American Lung
Association and the American Cancer Society indicating that each charity had
received a distribution of $39,168.71 from the Domke Estate. After receiving the executed Receipts and
Releases, the Probate Court closed their file for the Domke Estate. In fact, however, as of December 14, 1998,
neither the Lung Association nor the Cancer Society had received any
distribution from the Domke Estate.
4. During
1999, after Petitioner received several requests from the charities as to when
they might expect to receive their distributions from the Domke Estate,
Petitioner forwarded trust account checks to the charities in the amount of
$13,968.71 each. Petitioner informed
the charities that these checks were for partial distributions from the estate
and that the charities could expect to receive their final distribution after
the remainder of the bequest was liquidated.
The charities, however, received no further distribution from the
estate.
5. In
May 2000, Investigator Rader-Johnson received information from the American
Lung Association that they had not received their final distribution from the
Pearl Domke Estate. The Lung
Association also indicated that they had recently learned that the Outagamie
County probate file contained a Receipt and Release purportedly executed by an
employee of the Lung Association acknowledging receipt of the final
distribution. The Lung Association
asserted that the signature on the Receipt was probably forged since the
Receipt contained a signature of an employee who left their employment in
August 1998.
6. On
or about August 3, 2000, Investigator Rader-Johnson received information from
the American Cancer Society alleging that they had not received their final
distribution from the Pearl Domke Estate and that the Receipt and Release on
file with the probate court acknowledging receipt of the final distribution
contained a forged signature.
7. Upon
receiving this information from the Lung Association and the Cancer Society,
Investigator Rader-Johnson reviewed Outagamie County probate files, met with
and obtained sworn testimony from the Petitioner and reviewed bank records and
other materials.
8. Based on
the figures contained in the Amended Final Account from the Domke Estate, the
Lung Association and the Cancer Society should have received a total of
approximately $78,300. As of the spring
of 2000, the charities had received only approximately $27,500, rendering the
Amended Final Account filed by Petitioner to be grossly inaccurate by leaving
approximately $50,700 unaccounted for.
9. Additionally,
bank records from the Domke Estate show that between April 27, 1996 and
November 24, 1998, there were 14 checks made payable to Petitioner’s firm
totaling $72,000 purportedly written by the estate’s personal
representative. Petitioner reported on
the Amended Final Account that his firm had only received $7,000 in legal fees. The Amended Final Account does not disclose
the additional $65,000 in disbursements from the estate to Petitioner's firm.
10. The
investigation of Petitioner’s conduct has to date revealed that Petitioner
engaged in the following misconduct:
a)
In filing the
Amended Final Account for the Pearl Domke Estate in December, 1998, which
indicated that final disbursements had been made from the Estate to all of the
beneficiaries, including the American Lung Association and the American Cancer
Society, when Petitioner knew that final disbursements had not been made from
the Domke Estate to those charities, Petitioner engaged in conduct involving
dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, contrary to SCR 20:8.4(c).
b)
In preparing
and filing the Receipts and Releases dated December 14, 1998 which contained
forged signatures of representatives from the American Lung Association and the
American Cancer Society indicating that each charity had received their final
distribution of approximately $39,000 from the Pearl Domke Estate, when
Petitioner knew that neither charity had received any distribution from the
Domke Estate as of that date, Petitioner knowingly offered evidence that he
knew to be false, contrary to SCR 20:3.3(a)(4), and engaged in conduct
involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, contrary to SCR 20:8.4(c).
c)
In stating to
the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society in October 1999,
that the remainder of the bequests to the charities would be forthcoming, when
Petitioner knew the Domke Estate had been closed since December 1998,
Petitioner engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or
misrepresentation, contrary to SCR 20:8.4(c).
d)
In accepting payments of $72,000 to his firm from the Domke
Estate, but filing an Amended Final Account showing that the firm had received
only $7,000 from the Domke Estate, Petitioner engaged in dishonesty, fraud,
deceit
or misrepresentation, contrary to SCR 20:8.4(c).
Dated this 9th day of January, 2001.
OFFICE
OF LAWYER REGULATION
By: /s/
KEITH L. SELLEN
Director
State Bar No. 1001088
ADDRESS:
110 East Main Street, Room 315
Madison, WI 53703
Telephone: (608) 267-7274
Fax: (608) 267-1959
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Office of the Clerk
SUPREME COURT
110 E.
MAIN STREET, SUITE 215
P.O. BOX
1688
MADISON,
WISCONSIN 53701-1688
TELEPHONE (608) 266-1880
FACSIMILE (608) 267-0640
Web Site: www.courts.state.wi.us
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To: October 12, 2000
Office of Lawyer Regulation James
W. Snyder
110 E. Main Street, #315 Krause,
Metz & Snyder
Madison, WI 53703-3383 15
Park Place
Appleton,
WI 54915
Joseph J. Beisenstein
Menn Nelson Law Firm William
J. Weigel
P.O. Box 785 Office
of Lawyer Regulation
Appleton, WI 54912-0785 110
E. Main Street, Rm. 315
Madison,
WI 53703
You are hereby
notified that the Court has entered the following order:
No. XX-014062-D
Matter of Disciplinary Proceedings Against James W. Snyder:
BAPR v. Snyder
On September 27, 2000, the Board of
Attorneys Professional Responsibility filed a notice of motion and motion and
supporting affidavit seeking the temporary suspension of the license of James
W. Snyder to practice law in Wisconsin, pursuant to SCR 22.30(1); this court
ordered a response on October 4, 2000 and he indicated he has no objection to
the motion;
IT IS ORDERED that
the motion is granted. The license of
Attorney Snyder to practice law is temporarily suspended as of the date of this
order and until further notice of this court.
He shall further comply with the requirements of SCR 22.26 relating to
license suspension if he has not already done so.
Cornelia G. Clark
Clerk of Supreme Court