Opinion ID: 1926090
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: client r.t.counts 10-13

Text: [6] ¶ 31. The OLR complaint alleged that in April 2001 Cavendish-Sosinski was appointed by the SPD to represent R.T. on his appeal from a felony conviction. Cavendish-Sosinski initially made several contacts with R.T. promising to visit him to personally discuss his case. R.T., who was incarcerated, then made several attempts to contact Cavendish-Sosinski including several telephone calls. He also sent nine or ten letters to her to which she did not respond. Although R.T. could only place collect calls from prison, Cavendish-Sosinski instructed her legal assistant not to accept any collect telephone calls. ¶ 32. Beginning on July 10, 2001, R.T. made several requests to Cavendish-Sosinski for his transcripts; however, she never provided the transcripts to him. Although Cavendish-Sosinski claimed that she had ordered the transcripts, she never followed up with the court reporter to obtain the transcripts in a timely manner. As a result of her failure to file the transcripts with the court of appeals in a timely manner, R.T.'s right to appeal was thwarted. ¶ 33. R.T. filed a grievance with the OLR. The OLR staff subsequently sent Cavendish-Sosinski three requests that she respond to the R.T. grievance; she did not respond to any of the OLR's requests. After a fourth request was personally served on her, she finally submitted a response to R.T.'s grievance. ¶ 34. Subsequently, the R.T. matter was referred to the OLR's district committee for investigation. The district's investigator wrote two letters to Cavendish-Sosinski requesting that she contact him and he also made one attempt to contact her by telephone. Cavendish-Sosinski did not respond to the letters or the telephone call; she only cooperated with the district committee's investigation after she had been personally served with a notice to appear. ¶ 35. The referee, describing the R.T. grievance as the most serious matter in the OLR complaint, concluded that Cavendish-Sosinski had committed the violations as alleged in Counts 10, 11, 12, and 13 of the OLR complaint. Specifically, the referee found that Cavendish-Sosinski's conduct constituted a failure to act with reasonable diligence and promptness in a client matter as required by SCR 20:1.3; a failure to respond to reasonable requests for information as required by SCR 20:1.4(a); a failure to protect a client's interest as required by SCR 20:1.16(d); and a failure to cooperate with an OLR investigation and with the district committee as required under SCR 22.03(2) and 22.04(1).