Ex-Law Partners Engaged in Nasty Battle, Suit Alleges Racketeering, Client Stealing
A long-simmering battle between two well-known Milwaukee personal injury lawyers is heating up after claims by a private investigator that he helped sign at least five clients away from one lawyer to another.
In three of those cases, the clients went on to win some $30 million in settlements and $10 million in attorney fees.
The allegations are at the center of a lawsuit filed by Joseph Weigel against his former name partner Alvin Eisenberg, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
Eisenberg denies the allegations of fraud, racketeering and stealing clients.
Eisenberg, who has been practicing since 1958 and initially founded the firm that Weigel joined in 1990, took a buyout in 1999. Eisenberg’s name stayed on the firm despite his objections until litigation resolved that matter in 2006, the Journal Sentinel reports.
Weigel’s suit was filed just two weeks after disciplinary authorities asked the state Supreme Court to disbar Weigel. The Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation has filed complaints, charging Weigel with 10 ethics violations, including mishandling client trust accounts, according to a separate Journal Sentinel article.
The state ethics investigation took more than five years, although most investigations take about one year, according to the paper, which notes that Weigel is the father of Office of Lawyer Regulation litigation counsel William Weigel. To avoid a conflict of interest during the investigation, the Office of Lawyer Regulation appointed a special investigator in 2006, Madison lawyer Paul Schwarzenbart, to delve into the allegations against the elder Weigel.
