Title: Gary M. May v.
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: 1997AP002934-D
State: Wisconsin
Issuer: Wisconsin Supreme Court
Date: January 27, 1998

SUPREME COURT OF WISCONSIN 
 
 
Case No.: 
97-2934-D 
 
 
Complete Title 
of Case: 
 
In the Matter of Disciplinary  
Proceedings Against 
Gary M. May, 
Attorney at Law. 
 
 
 
DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS AGAINST MAY 
 
 
Opinion Filed: 
January 27, 1998 
Submitted on Briefs: 
 
Oral Argument: 
 
 
 
Source of APPEAL 
 
COURT: 
 
 
COUNTY: 
 
 
JUDGE: 
 
 
 
JUSTICES: 
 
Concurred: 
 
 
Dissented: 
 
 
Not Participating:  
 
 
ATTORNEYS: 
 
 
No.97-2934-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. 97-2934-D 
 
STATE OF WISCONSIN               :        
        
 
 
 
 
IN SUPREME COURT 
 
 
In the Matter of Disciplinary Proceedings 
Against GARY M. MAY, Attorney at Law. 
FILED 
 
JAN 27, 1998 
 
Marilyn L. Graves 
Clerk of Supreme Court 
Madison, WI 
 
 
 
ATTORNEY 
disciplinary 
proceeding.  Attorney’s 
license 
suspended.  
¶1 
PER CURIAM   We review the stipulation of the Board of 
Attorneys Professional Responsibility (Board) and Attorney Gary 
M. May filed with the Board’s complaint alleging that Attorney 
May engaged in professional misconduct by repeatedly failing to 
file timely his state and federal income tax returns. In that 
stipulation, Attorney May and the Board agreed that a 60-day 
suspension of Attorney May’s license to practice law is 
appropriate discipline to impose for that misconduct. Based on 
the 
discipline 
we 
have 
imposed 
on 
attorneys 
in 
similar 
circumstances, we suspend Attorney May’s license for 60 days.  
¶2 
Attorney May was licensed to practice law in Wisconsin 
in 1974 and practices in Madison. In a prior disciplinary 
matter, he consented to a private reprimand from the Board in 
September, 1995 for failing to act with reasonable diligence and 
promptness in an estate matter, keep an interested party in that 
No.97-2934-D 
 
2 
estate informed about its status, and comply with that person’s 
reasonable requests for information in the matter.  
¶3 
In the instant proceeding, the parties stipulated to 
the following. In March, 1996, a criminal complaint was filed in 
Dane county circuit court charging Attorney May with three 
misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to timely file state 
individual income tax returns for 1992, 1993 and 1994. The 
complaint also alleged that Attorney May had failed to file 
timely state income tax returns for 13 consecutive years. 
Attorney May was found guilty on a no contest plea of two 
misdemeanor counts and sentenced to three years’ probation, 
ordered to pay $2000 in fines and costs, and ordered to make 
restitution and file timely all tax returns and pay taxes due 
during the probationary period. The parties stipulated that the 
federal 
and 
state 
tax 
authorities 
have 
assessed 
him 
approximately $50,000 in taxes, interest and penalties for the 
period 1992 to 1995. As of July, 1997, Attorney May had not made 
any payments toward that obligation. On the basis of those 
facts, we conclude, as the parties had stipulated, that Attorney 
May’s intentional failure to file numerous personal income tax 
returns timely violated a standard of conduct for lawyers 
established by court decision and thus violated SCR 20:8.4(f).1  
                     
1 SCR 20:8.4 provides, in pertinent part: Misconduct 
It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to:  
 . . .  
No.97-2934-D 
 
3 
¶4 
IT IS ORDERED that the license of Gary M. May to 
practice law in Wisconsin is suspended for a period of 60 days, 
commencing March 10, 1998.  
¶5 
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that within 60 days of the date 
of this order, Gary M. May 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 Gary M. May to 
practice law in Wisconsin shall remain suspended until further 
order of the court.  
¶6 
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Gary M. May comply with the 
provisions of SCR 22.26 concerning the duties of a person whose 
license to practice law in Wisconsin has been suspended.  
 
                                                                  
(f) violate a statute, supreme court rule, supreme court 
order or supreme court decision regulating the conduct of 
lawyers; 
 
 
1