Hearing to reinstate Stanley Woodard

On Monday, July 18, 2011, at 9 a.m., a public hearing will be held before referee Lisa Goldman in the Conference Room at Lawton & Cates S.C., 10 E. Doty St., Suite 400, Madison, on the petition of Stanley Woodard, Madison, to reinstate his Wisconsin law license. Any interested person may appear at the hearing and be heard in support of, or in opposition to, the petition for reinstatement.

Woodard’s law license was suspended for three years in 1994; suspended again in 1995, for one year concurrent to the previous three-year suspension; and revoked in 1996.

In Disciplinary Proceedings Against Woodard, 183 Wis. 2d 575, 515 N.W.2d 700 (1994), the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Woodard’s law licensed for three years based on his assisting the friend of an incarcerated client to violate the terms of her probation, committing professional misconduct in his representation of criminal clients, failing to return a client’s file on request and refund the unearned portion of the client’s retainer, and failing to cooperate in the Board of Attorneys Professional Responsibility’s (BAPR) grievance investigations. The court ordered that as a condition of the reinstatement of his law license, Woodard establish that he no longer suffers from a medical incapacity asserted in that proceeding.

In Disciplinary Proceedings Against Woodard, 190 Wis. 2d 487, 526 N.W.2d 510 (1995), the supreme court suspended Woodard’s law license for one year for professional misconduct in his representation of two clients in 1992 and 1993 and his failure to respond to numerous inquiries from the BAPR and its district professional responsibility committee.

In Disciplinary Proceedings Against Woodard, 200 Wis. 2d 66, 66 N.W.2d 162 (1996), the supreme court revoked Woodards’s law license based on his admitted inability to defend against allegations concerning his use of his client trust account to make payments of personal obligations and his failure to maintain required trust account records, including his receipt and disbursement of a client’s funds, writing checks on those funds to himself for fees without adequately documenting the purpose of those transactions, and failing to account to a client for funds he received and disbursed on the client’s behalf.

To be reinstated, Woodard has the burden of substantiating by clear, satisfactory, and convincing evidence that he has the moral character to practice law in Wisconsin, his resumption of the practice of law will not be detrimental to the administration of justice or subversive of the public interest, all representations in his reinstatement petition are substantiated, and he has complied fully with the terms of the suspension order and with supreme court rules.

Relevant information may be provided to or obtained from Office of Lawyer Regulation investigator Mary Ahlstrom, (877) 315-6941 toll free, or retained counsel Thomas J. Basting Sr., Midwest Mediation LLC, 125 N. Hamilton St., Unit 905, P.O. Box 1766, Madison, WI 53701-1766, (608) 441-9075.

Wisconsin Lawyer