Attorney threatened with license revocation for latest dozen counts of misconduct.

Byline: Michaela Paukner, mpaukner@wislawjournal.com

A western Wisconsin attorney with a lengthy disciplinary history could lose his law license for good for his latest dozen counts of misconduct.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation filed its fourth complaint against the Hudson attorney Christopher Petros, who a referee said "should seriously consider whether another occupation would suit him better" in another pending case with dozens more misconduct charges.

The latest complaint, filed on April 8, accuses the solo practitioner of 16 counts of misconduct. The chargesstem fromfour separate matters over the past three years.

More than half of the charges resulted from a2018 probate matter and a related civil case. The OLR said Petrospreparedhis clients for trial and participated ina civiltrial himself whilehis license was temporarily suspendedfor failing to cooperate with an OLR investigation in an unrelated matter.

On the fourth day of the trial, the judge stated on the record that he'dreceived an order thatsaid Petros' license had been reinstated. The OLR said this was the first time the judge, counsel and clients found out Petros' license had been suspended.

According to the complaint, Petros told the court that he had sent a letter to the Clerk of the Supreme Court's office asking for an amendment to the order. Petrosclaimed he spoke with someone at the clerk's office who said his license would be reinstated before the trial.

However, the clerk's office had no record of receiving the letter around the time of the trial. Staff employees at the clerk's office also said no one would have told Petros when his license would be reinstated. That's because the office would have no previous knowledge ofwhen reinstatement orders would be issued.

The OLR charged Petros with nine counts of misconductrelated to practicing while his license was suspended, lying about the letter and failing to respondin a timely manner to the OLR's investigation.

The additional charges detailed in the complaint accuse Petros of taking a $5,000payment from a client, even though he had been appointed to represent the defendant by the State Public Defender, along...