Office of Lawyer Regulation v. Sommers

¶ 1. Attorney Joseph L. Sommers appeals a referee's recommendation that his license to practice law in Wisconsin be suspended for professional misconduct and that he be directed to pay a portion of the costs of the disciplinary proceeding. After exhaustive review and consideration, we approve the referee's findings of fact, conclusions of law and recommendations relating to discipline and costs. We suspend Attorney Sommers' license to practice law for 30 days, but we reduce, by one-half, the costs of the proceeding to be assessed against him.

¶ 2. We begin our discussion by noting that this…