Title: Thomas K. Archie v.

State: wisconsin

Issuer: Wisconsin Supreme Court

Document:

NOTICE 
This opinion is subject to further editing 
and modification.  The final version will 
appear in the bound volume of the official 
reports. 
 
 
No. 96-2649-D 
 
STATE OF WISCONSIN               :               
 
 
 
 
IN SUPREME COURT 
 
 
In the Matter of Disciplinary Proceedings 
Against THOMAS K. ARCHIE, Attorney at Law 
FILED 
 
NOV 15, 1996 
 
Marilyn L. Graves 
Clerk of Supreme Court 
Madison, WI 
 
 
 
 
ATTORNEY disciplinary proceeding.  Attorney’s license 
suspended. 
 
PER CURIAM.   We review, pursuant to SCR 21.09(3m),
1 
the stipulation of the Board of Attorneys Professional 
Responsibility (Board) and Attorney Thomas K. Archie 
concerning Attorney Archie’s professional misconduct and the 
discipline to be imposed for it. Attorney Archie failed to 
                                                          
 
1  SCR 21.09 provides, in pertinent part:  Procedure. 
. . . 
(3m) The board may file with a complaint a stipulation 
by the board and the respondent attorney to the facts, 
conclusions of law and discipline to be imposed. The supreme 
court may consider the complaint and stipulation without 
appointing a referee. If the supreme court approves the 
stipulation, it shall adopt the stipulated facts and 
conclusions of law and impose the stipulated discipline. If 
the supreme court rejects the stipulation, a referee shall 
be appointed pursuant to sub. (4) and the matter shall 
proceed pursuant to SCR chapter 22. A stipulation that is 
rejected has no evidentiary value and is without prejudice 
to the respondent’s defense of the proceeding or the board’s 
prosecution of the complaint.  
 
 
No. 96-2649-D 
 
 
2
pay clients’ medical bills out of personal injury 
settlements he had received and deposited into his trust 
account, did not provide clients with written settlement 
statements of his disbursal of settlement funds, failed to 
account for and properly disburse funds to several clients 
and disbursed their funds to himself, used his client trust 
account as a personal checking account and failed to produce 
trust account records required by court rule.  
We adopt the findings of fact and conclusions of law 
set forth in the parties’ stipulation concerning Attorney 
Archie’s professional misconduct and determine that the 
stipulated 
one-year 
license 
suspension 
is 
appropriate 
discipline to impose for that misconduct. Attorney Archie’s 
misconduct, in part, is a repetition of similar misconduct 
for which he was disciplined previously. His misuse of 
client funds held in his trust account and inability to 
account for the ownership of those funds constitute serious 
breaches of his fiduciary duty to his clients in respect to 
monies received on their behalf.  
Attorney Archie was admitted to practice law in 
Wisconsin in 1988 and practiced in the Milwaukee area. The 
court suspended his license for six months, effective June 
1, 1995, as discipline for repeatedly failing to keep 
clients informed of the status of their legal matters and 
exercise reasonable diligence and promptness in representing 
them, failing to protect client interests when he closed his 
office and ceased to represent them, and failing to 
 
 
No. 96-2649-D 
 
 
3
cooperate with and making a misrepresentation to the Board 
during its investigation of client grievances. Disciplinary 
Proceedings Against Archie, 192 Wis. 2d 71, 531 N.W.2d 320 
(1995). In addition to that license suspension, the court 
ordered Attorney Archie to make restitution to several 
clients whose medical bills he failed to pay out of 
settlement amounts he collected on their behalf. Attorney 
Archie has not petitioned for reinstatement and his license 
remains suspended.  
In this proceeding, the parties stipulated to the 
following misconduct. In 1991, Attorney Archie received a 
$3300 check in settlement of a personal injury client’s 
claim. After disbursing a one-third contingency fee to 
himself, payment to an ambulance service and $1170 to the 
client, Attorney Archie retained $807 to pay a medical bill 
of the client. In January, 1995, the clinic obtained a 
judgment against the client, as that bill remained unpaid, 
and Attorney Archie was unable to account for the balance of 
the client’s funds. When he closed his trust account in 1994 
upon terminating his legal practice, Attorney Archie assumed 
that any remaining funds in that account were his fees and 
disbursed all of them to himself, including the personal 
injury client’s balance.  
The parties stipulated that Attorney Archie’s failure 
to disburse the balance of the settlement proceeds to the 
 
 
No. 96-2649-D 
 
 
4
client violated SCR 20:1.15(b)
2 and his retention of those 
funds upon closing his trust account constituted dishonesty, 
fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, in violation of SCR 
20:8.4(c).
3 Also, his failure to provide the client with a 
written settlement statement upon conclusion of the client’s 
matter violated SCR 20:1.5(c).
4  
An audit of Attorney Archie’s trust account for the 
period July, 1991 to the time it was closed in 1994 
                                                          
 
2  SCR 20:1.15 provides, in pertinent part: Safekeeping 
property 
. . . 
(b) Upon receiving funds or other property in which a 
client or third person has an interest, a lawyer shall 
promptly notify the client or third person in writing. 
Except as stated in this rule or otherwise permitted by law 
or by agreement with the client, a lawyer shall promptly 
deliver to the client or third person any funds or other 
property that the client or third person is entitled to 
receive and, upon request by the client or third person, 
shall render a full accounting regarding such property.  
 
3  SCR 20:8.4 provides, in pertinent part: Misconduct 
It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to: 
. . . 
(c) engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, 
deceit or misrepresentation;  
 
4  SCR 20:1.5 provides, in pertinent part: Fees 
. . . 
(c) A fee may be contingent on the outcome of the 
matter for which the service is rendered, except in a matter 
in which a contingent fee is prohibited by paragraph (d) or 
other law. A contingent fee agreement shall be in writing 
and shall state the method by which the fee is to be 
determined, including the percentage or percentages that 
shall accrue to the lawyer in the event of settlement, trial 
or appeal, litigation and other expenses to be deducted from 
the recovery, and whether such expenses are to be deducted 
before or after the contingent fee is calculated. Upon 
conclusion of a contingent fee matter, the lawyer shall 
provide the client with a written statement stating the 
outcome of the matter and if there is a recovery, showing 
the remittance to the client and the method of its 
determination.  
(continued …) 
 
 
No. 96-2649-D 
 
 
5
disclosed that approximately $966 of a second personal 
injury client’s settlement proceeds remained unaccounted 
for. In all, the audit disclosed that $3125 was unaccounted 
for and not properly disbursed in respect to those two 
personal injury cases and two others that were the subject 
of the prior disciplinary proceeding. The parties stipulated 
that Attorney Archie thereby violated SCR 20:1.15(b).  
While winding down his practice and closing his trust 
account, Attorney Archie wrote 12 checks totaling $4585 to 
himself and to others for personal purposes on funds in his 
trust account. None of those checks was attributed to any 
particular client matter. When he closed that account, 
Attorney Archie was aware that two of his clients had filed 
grievances with the Board and that their unpaid medical 
bills remained outstanding and funds were on deposit in his 
trust account to pay them. It was stipulated that Attorney 
Archie retained from the funds remaining in his trust 
account $2317 to which he was not entitled, as that money 
belonged to three of the personal injury clients.  The 
parties stipulated that the improper disbursement of those 
funds to himself constituted dishonesty, fraud, deceit or 
misrepresentation, in violation of SCR 20:8.4(c).  
The trust account audit also showed that Attorney 
Archie had been using that account as a personal checking 
account, 
frequently 
depositing 
settlement 
checks 
for 
personal injury clients on which he wrote checks to pay 
                                                                                                                                                                             
 
 
 
No. 96-2649-D 
 
 
6
various personal expenses. He would also deposit into that 
trust account checks for legal fees he already had earned, 
on which he then would write checks for personal expenses. 
His commingling of personal funds with client funds in his 
trust account and using that account as a personal checking 
account violated SCR 20:1.15(a).
5  
During its investigation of these matters, the Board 
asked Attorney Archie for his trust account records, but he 
was able to produce only an incomplete ledger book that in 
many instances did not indicate to which client a particular 
deposit or disbursement related. The ledger kept no running 
balance of funds on deposit for a given client and did not 
record all trust account transactions. Attorney Archie did 
not keep the trust account records required by SCR 
20:1.15(e).
6  
                                                          
 
5  SCR 20:1.15 provides, in pertinent part: Safekeeping 
property 
(a) A lawyer shall hold in trust, separate from the 
lawyer’s own property, property of clients or third persons 
that is in the lawyer’s possession in connection with a 
representation. All funds of clients paid to a lawyer or law 
firm shall be deposited in one or more identifiable trust 
accounts as provided in paragraph (c) maintained in a bank, 
trust company, credit union or savings and loan association 
authorized to do business and located in Wisconsin, which 
account shall be clearly designated as “Client’s Account” or 
“Trust Account” or words of similar import, and no funds 
belonging to the lawyer or law firm except funds reasonably 
sufficient to pay account service charges may be deposited 
in such an account.  
 
6  SCR 20:1.15 provides, in pertinent part: Safekeeping 
property 
. . . 
(e) Complete records of trust account funds and other 
trust property shall be kept by the lawyer and shall be 
preserved for a period of at least six years after 
(continued …) 
 
 
No. 96-2649-D 
 
 
7
In addition to the one-year license suspension as 
discipline for that misconduct, the parties stipulated that 
Attorney Archie be required to make restitution to the 
former 
client 
in 
the 
matter 
first 
described 
above. 
Implicitly, the other personal injury clients whose medical 
bills were not paid with funds belonging to them in Attorney 
Archie’s trust account either have been repaid the amount to 
which they were entitled or were the object of the court’s 
prior disciplinary order requiring Attorney Archie to make 
restitution.  
IT IS ORDERED that the license of Thomas K. Archie to 
practice law in Wisconsin is suspended for a period of one 
year, effective the date of this order.  
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that within 60 days of the date 
of this order Thomas K. Archie make restitution as specified 
                                                                                                                                                                             
termination of the representation. Complete records shall 
include: (i) a cash receipts journal, listing the sources 
and date of each receipt, (ii) a disbursements journal, 
listing the date and payee of each disbursement, with all 
disbursements being paid by check, (iii) a subsidiary ledger 
containing a separate page for each person or company for 
whom funds have been received in trust, showing the date and 
amount of each receipt, the date and amount of each 
disbursement, and any unexpended balance, (iv) a monthly 
schedule of the subsidiary ledger, indicating the balance of 
each client’s account at the end of each month, (v) a 
determination of the cash balance (checkbook balance) at the 
end of each month, taken from the cash receipts and cash 
disbursement journals and a reconciliation of the cash 
balance (checkbook balance) with the balance indicated in 
the bank statement, and (vi) monthly statements, including 
canceled checks, vouchers or share drafts, and duplicate 
deposit slips. A record of all property other than cash 
which is held in trust for clients or third persons, as 
required by paragraph (a) hereof, shall also be maintained. 
All trust account records shall be deemed to have public 
aspects as related to the lawyer’s fitness to practice.  
 
 
No. 96-2649-D 
 
 
8
in the stipulation of the parties on file in this 
proceeding.  
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that within 60 days of the date 
of this order Thomas K. Archie pay to the Board of Attorneys 
Professional Responsibility the costs of this proceeding, 
provided that if the costs are not paid within the time 
specified and absent a showing to this court of his 
inability to pay the costs within that time, the license of 
Thomas K. Archie to practice law in Wisconsin shall remain 
suspended until further order of the court.  
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Thomas K. Archie comply with 
the provisions of SCR 22.26 concerning the duties of a 
person whose license to practice law in Wisconsin has been 
suspended.  
 
 
No. 96-2649-D 
 
 
9
 
SUPREME COURT OF WISCONSIN 
 
 
Case No.: 
96-2649-D 
 
 
Complete Title 
of Case: 
 
In the Matter of Disciplinary 
Proceedings Against 
Thomas K. Archie, 
Attorney at Law. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS AGAINST ARCHIE 
 
 
Opinion Filed: November 15, 1996 
Submitted on Briefs: 
 
Oral Argument:  
 
 
Source of APPEAL 
 
COURT: 
 
 
COUNTY: 
 
 
JUDGE: 
 
 
 
JUSTICES: 
 
Concurred:  
 
Dissented:  
 
Not Participating:  
 
 
ATTORNEYS: