Legal Ethics

Gambling addiction cited by lawyer who says he's under investigation and will give up law license

  •  
  •  
  •  
  • Print

A longtime Wisconsin attorney who is considered a leading debt-collection lawyer in Milwaukee says he is winding down his practice due to an investigation over missing client trust money and plans to give up his law license.

“I’m actually a very good lawyer; this is sadly the end to a very good career,” Randy Wynn, 60, told the Journal Sentinel in a phone interview Thursday.

In practice since 1979, with an unblemished disciplinary history, Wynn said he has self-reported in November to the Milwaukee County district attorney and lawyer regulators that an undetermined amount of client money is missing and is now working to put together an accounting and transfer files in an orderly manner, the newspaper reports. He said a gambling addiction was the cause of his issues.

Bankruptcy trustee Douglas Mann also told the judge at a recent hearing concerning a Wynn client that Wynn “has advised me that there are significant amounts of money missing” from his trust account, the Journal Sentinel says.

“I’m cooperating 100 percent with everybody,” Wynn told the newspaper. “I don’t want to come off as someone who is running from this. … No one caught me doing anything.”

Give us feedback, share a story tip or update, or report an error.