Title: Board of Attorneys Professional Responsibility v. Francis J. Kortsch
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: 1998AP002989-D
State: Wisconsin
Issuer: Wisconsin Supreme Court
Date: April 27, 1999

SUPREME COURT OF WISCONSIN 
 
 
Case No.: 
98-2989-D 
 
 
Complete Title 
of Case: 
 
 
In the Matter of Disciplinary Proceedings 
Against Francis J. Kortsch, Attorney at  
Law. 
 
Board of Attorneys Professional  
Responsibility,  
 
Complainant, 
 
v. 
Francis J. Kortsch,  
 
Respondent.  
 
DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS AGAINST KORTSCH 
 
 
Opinion Filed: 
April 27, 1999 
Submitted on Briefs: 
 
Oral Argument: 
 
 
 
Source of APPEAL 
 
COURT: 
 
 
COUNTY: 
 
 
JUDGE: 
 
 
 
JUSTICES: 
 
Concurred: 
 
 
Dissented: 
 
 
Not Participating:  
 
 
ATTORNEYS: 
 
 
No. 
98-2989-D 
 
1 
 
NOTICE 
This opinion is subject to further editing and 
modification.  The final version will appear in 
the bound volume of the official reports. 
 
 
No. 98-2989-D 
 
STATE OF WISCONSIN               :        
        
 
 
 
 
IN SUPREME COURT 
 
 
In the Matter of Disciplinary Proceedings 
Against Francis J. Kortsch, Attorney at 
Law. 
Board of Attorneys Professional 
Responsibility,  
 
 
Complainant, 
 
v.  
Francis J. Kortsch, 
 
 
Respondent. 
FILED 
 
APR 27, 1999 
 
Marilyn L. Graves 
Clerk of Supreme Court 
Madison, WI 
 
 
 
ATTORNEY 
disciplinary 
proceeding.  Attorney’s 
license 
revoked.  
¶1 
PER CURIAM   We review the recommendation of the 
referee that the license of Francis J. Kortsch to practice law 
in 
Wisconsin 
be 
revoked 
as 
discipline 
for 
professional 
misconduct consisting of theft from a client, for which Attorney 
Kortsch was convicted of a felony. Attorney Kortsch committed 
that crime by submitting fraudulent billings to the client. We 
determine 
that 
the 
seriousness 
of 
Attorney 
Kortsch’s 
professional misconduct warrants the revocation of his license 
to practice law. He used his professional position to steal 
No. 
98-2989-D 
 
2 
client funds, thereby betraying the trust the client had placed 
in him.  
¶2 
Attorney Kortsch was admitted to practice law in 
Wisconsin in 1988 and has an office in Milwaukee. The court 
suspended his license May 22, 1995 for 60 days as discipline for 
continuing to practice law while suspended for noncompliance 
with continuing legal education requirements. Attorney Kortsch 
continues to be suspended from practice for failure to comply 
with continuing legal education requirements. When Attorney 
Kortsch did not file an answer to the Board of Attorneys 
Professional Responsibility’s (Board) complaint, the referee, 
Attorney John R. Decker, held a hearing and granted the Board’s 
motion for default judgment. The referee also granted the 
parties’ request for time to file memoranda on the issue of 
discipline, but when neither party did so, the referee filed his 
report, including findings of fact based on the Board’s 
complaint.  
¶3 
When retained in September 1991 to represent a 
Michigan union’s health and welfare fund in collecting unpaid 
health insurance premiums for union members from delinquent 
employers, Attorney Kortsch was not licensed to practice law in 
Michigan but misrepresented to his client that he would obtain 
or was obtaining a license. In fact, he never filed an 
application for admission to the Michigan bar.  
¶4 
Between the time he was retained and July 1993, when 
the client terminated his representation, Attorney Kortsch 
billed the client for filing fees and litigation services in 
No. 
98-2989-D 
 
3 
connection with 42 lawsuits that never had been filed. He gave 
the client computer generated billings that set forth filing 
costs as well as attorney time charges for pretrials, scheduling 
conferences, and other services. He then attempted to conceal 
his conduct by falsely maintaining that his files had been 
tampered with. He failed to turn over those files to the client 
for more than one year, and when he did so, the files were 
incomplete. An audit conducted in the course of civil litigation 
against him disclosed that his fraudulent billings totaled 
$48,563. He and the client entered into an agreement in that 
action for repayment pursuant to a schedule, but he did not 
comply with that schedule.  
¶5 
Attorney Kortsch then was charged in federal court in 
Michigan with one felony count of embezzling, stealing and 
unlawfully and willfully abstracting and converting to his own 
use approximately $48,000 from the client. When he entered a 
guilty 
plea, 
Attorney 
Kortsch 
told 
the 
court 
he 
had 
subcontracted the collection work to another attorney but billed 
the client for that work himself, when in fact the work was not 
being performed. The court sentenced Attorney Kortsch to five 
years’ probation, placed him on home confinement with electronic 
monitoring for 14 months, and ordered him to participate in a 
substance abuse program and make restitution to the client. At 
the time of sentencing, Attorney Kortsch had repaid the client 
approximately $11,000.  
¶6 
On the basis of those facts, the referee concluded 
that by his embezzlement and theft from the client, Attorney 
No. 
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4 
Kortsch committed a crime that adversely reflects on his honesty 
and trustworthiness as a lawyer, in violation of SCR 20:8.4(b).1 
Further, the embezzlement and theft and his attempt to conceal 
the 
facts 
from 
his 
client 
constituted 
conduct 
involving 
dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, in violation of 
SCR 20:8.4(c).2 As discipline for that misconduct, the referee 
recommended that Attorney Kortsch’s license to practice law be 
revoked. The referee considered Attorney Kortsch’s fraudulent 
billings as the product of a “calculated and brazen scheme” 
involving substantial sums of money. Moreover, when confronted 
by his client, he resorted to deception and stalling tactics 
regarding the client’s files. The referee also took into account 
that Attorney Kortsch has been suspended from the practice of 
law for conduct that reflects adversely on his trustworthiness, 
namely, practicing law while under suspension.  
¶7 
We 
adopt 
the 
referee’s 
findings 
of 
fact 
and 
conclusions of law and determine that license revocation is the 
                     
1  SCR 20:8.4 provides, in pertinent part: Misconduct 
It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to: 
 . . .  
(b) commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the 
lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in 
other respects;  
2  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;  
No. 
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5 
appropriate 
discipline 
to 
impose 
for 
Attorney 
Kortsch’s 
professional misconduct. We also require him to pay the costs of 
this proceeding, as the referee recommended.  
¶8 
IT IS ORDERED that the license of Francis J. Kortsch 
to practice law in Wisconsin is revoked, effective the date of 
this order.  
¶9 
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that within 60 days of the date 
of this order, Francis J. Kortsch pay to the Board of Attorneys 
Professional Responsibility the costs of this disciplinary 
proceeding.  
¶10 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Francis J. Kortsch comply 
with the provisions of SCR 22.26 concerning the duties of a 
person whose license to practice law has been revoked.  
 
 
1