Title: Board of Attorneys Professional Responsibility v. Nancy A. Schlieve
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: 1997AP003862-D, 1996AP003390-D
State: Wisconsin
Issuer: Wisconsin Supreme Court
Date: October 15, 1998

SUPREME COURT OF WISCONSIN 
 
 
Case No.: 
97-3862-D 
 
 
Complete Title 
of Case: 
 
 
In the Matter of the Medical Incapacity 
Proceedings Against Nancy A. Schlieve, Attorney 
at Law. 
 
MEDICAL INCAPACITY PROCEEDINGS AGAINST SCHLIEVE 
 
 
Opinion Filed: 
October 15, 1998 
Submitted on Briefs: 
 
Oral Argument: 
 
 
 
Source of APPEAL 
 
COURT: 
 
 
COUNTY: 
 
 
JUDGE: 
 
 
 
JUSTICES: 
 
Concurred: 
 
 
Dissented: 
 
 
Not Participating:  
 
 
ATTORNEYS: 
 
 
No. 
97-3862-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. 97-3862-D 
 
STATE OF WISCONSIN               :        
        
 
 
 
 
IN SUPREME COURT 
 
 
In the Matter of Medical Incapacity 
Proceedings Against NANCY A. SCHLIEVE, 
Attorney at Law. 
FILED 
 
OCT 15, 1998 
 
Marilyn L. Graves 
Clerk of Supreme Court 
Madison, WI 
 
 
 
MEDICAL 
incapacity 
proceeding;  indefinite 
license 
suspension imposed.  
¶1 
PER CURIAM   We review the recommendation of the 
referee that the license of Nancy A. Schlieve to practice law in 
Wisconsin be suspended indefinitely for reasons of her medical 
incapacity. The referee made findings of fact in respect to 
Attorney Schlieve’s conduct in three matters and in respect to 
her compliance with conditions the court imposed on her license 
in a prior proceeding and concluded that her medical incapacity 
substantially prevents her from performing her profession to 
acceptable professional standards and presents a danger to her 
clients and to the public.  
¶2 
We 
determine 
that 
the 
seriousness 
of 
Attorney 
Schlieve’s conduct established in this proceeding and its 
relation to her alcoholism require the indefinite suspension of 
her license to practice law until such time as she establishes 
that she no longer has a medical incapacity that interferes with 
No. 
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2 
her practice of law and presents a danger to clients, the 
courts, and the public.  
¶3 
Attorney Schlieve was admitted to practice law in 
Wisconsin in 1990 and practices in the Eau Claire area. On 
September 12, 1997, the court imposed conditions on her practice 
of law directed toward her rehabilitation from alcoholism. 
Medical Incapacity Proceedings Against Schlieve, Case No. 96-
3390-D. When it filed the petition in the instant proceeding, 
the Board of Attorneys Professional Responsibility (Board) moved 
that 
Attorney 
Schlieve’s 
license be 
suspended 
temporarily 
pending disposition of the proceeding. When she did not respond 
to the order to show cause issued on that motion, the court, by 
order of March 11, 1998, suspended Attorney Schlieve’s license 
to practice law pending disposition of this proceeding.  
¶4 
Attorney Schlieve was personally served with the 
petition in this proceeding but did not file a responsive 
pleading or otherwise appear. The referee then had a hearing on 
the Board’s motion for default judgment, at which Attorney 
Schlieve did not appear, and made findings and conclusions based 
on the petition.  
¶5 
In May, 1996, Attorney Schlieve was appointed by the 
State Public Defender to represent a client. The following 
August that client told the judge presiding in her case that 
Attorney Schlieve had failed to inform her of the date scheduled 
for a motion hearing and the date scheduled for another court 
hearing and that she first became aware of those scheduled 
hearings after learning that bench warrants had been issued for 
No. 
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3 
her arrest. The court appointed other counsel to represent that 
client. Responding to the Board in that matter, Attorney 
Schlieve asserted that she kept in contact with the client and 
informed her of all court dates by telephone and by letter. 
Subsequently, the circuit judge assigned to the matter told the 
Board that it appeared from Attorney Schlieve’s correspondence, 
his review of his clerk’s notes, and his own recollection that 
Attorney Schlieve may have attempted to mislead the court 
regarding her contacts with the client.  
¶6 
In a second matter, a client retained Attorney 
Schlieve in the spring of 1996 to represent him in a criminal 
proceeding. When he was unable to reach Attorney Schlieve, he 
appeared for his status conference in that matter with a lawyer 
assigned by the State Public Defender. Attorney Schlieve failed 
to appear for a subsequently scheduled status conference, 
despite having been informed of it and of the court’s practice 
of canceling a jury trial if the defendant’s counsel failed to 
appear at a status conference. The court then rescheduled the 
status conference and notified Attorney Schlieve that she had 
either to withdraw as the client’s counsel or to appear at that 
conference and that in the event of her failure to do either, 
she would be held in contempt. Attorney Schlieve failed to 
appear at the conference, and the court informed her that it 
considered her to be in contempt but gave her one final 
opportunity either to withdraw as the defendant’s counsel or 
appear for a subsequently scheduled status conference. Attorney 
Schlieve did not appear at that conference, and the court issued 
No. 
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4 
an order to show cause why she should not be dismissed as 
counsel for the defendant. When Attorney Schlieve did not appear 
at the hearing on that order to show cause, the court dismissed 
her as the defendant’s counsel.  
¶7 
In a third matter, on the report of an observer, the 
police issued a citation to Attorney Schlieve for operating a 
motor vehicle after revocation - second offense. A criminal 
complaint subsequently was filed, which included a charge of 
knowingly 
obstructing 
an 
officer 
by 
misrepresenting 
her 
whereabouts on the date in question. In November, 1996, one 
month after that complaint was filed, a similar complaint was 
filed in a neighboring county, which included a charge of 
obstruction based on Attorney Schlieve’s initially having given 
the police officer her name as “Amy C. Schlieve.”  
¶8 
In May, 1997, at a trial on charges of operating a 
motor vehicle after revocation and obstructing an officer, after 
final arguments were presented, Attorney Schlieve left the 
courthouse while the jury was deliberating. When she returned to 
hear the jury’s guilty verdict, it was apparent she had been 
consuming alcohol. The bailiff detected a strong smell of 
alcoholic beverage when he escorted Attorney Schlieve to the 
clerk’s office and then to the jail, and he immediately 
instructed her to report to her probation officer. During the 
investigation of these matters undertaken by the district 
professional responsibility committee, and after a number of 
postponements and reschedulings, Attorney Schlieve did not 
appear. The committee was informed that Attorney Schlieve would 
No. 
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5 
be admitted to an alcohol treatment facility for an inpatient 
treatment program.  
¶9 
In addition, Attorney Schlieve did not respond to the 
requests 
of 
the 
Board’s 
administrator 
for 
proof 
of 
her 
compliance with several of the conditions we imposed on her 
license to practice law September 12, 1997, including attendance 
at out-patient alcohol dependency counseling sessions, random 
urine or blood screening, and attendance at recovery support 
group meetings. Attorney Schlieve also did not respond to a 
subsequent letter from the administrator informing her of her 
need to do so.  
¶10 We 
adopt 
the 
referee’s 
findings 
of 
fact 
and 
conclusions of law and determine that Attorney Schlieve’s 
license to practice law must be suspended indefinitely until 
such time as she establishes to the satisfaction of the court 
that she no longer suffers a medical incapacity that interferes 
with her practice of law. We also require Attorney Schlieve to 
pay the costs of this proceeding, as the referee recommended.  
¶11 IT IS ORDERED that the license of Nancy A. Schlieve to 
practice law in Wisconsin is suspended for an indefinite period, 
commencing the date of this order and until further order of the 
court.  
¶12 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that within 60 days of the date 
of this order, Nancy A. Schlieve 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 her inability to 
No. 
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6 
pay the costs within that time, the license of Nancy A. Schlieve 
to practice law in Wisconsin shall remain suspended until 
further order of the court.  
¶13 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Nancy A. Schlieve comply 
with the provisions of SCR 22.26 concerning the duties of a 
person whose license to practice law has been suspended.  
 
 
1