Supreme Court reinstates Fox Point lawyer who stole from estate
A Fox Point lawyer who begged his way out of a jail sentence in 2018 for stealing from an estate has been deemed safe to practice law again in Wisconsin by the state Supreme Court.
Daniel Morse, 67, remains disbarred in Florida and suspended from practice in Pennsylvania, two other states where he had once been licensed.
He was charged in 2017 with five felonies and three misdemeanors for his handling of money from a Dodge County estate starting in 2014. Ultimately, he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor embezzlements after prosecutors agreed to drop all the felonies.
Morse repaid the estate $26,037. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Joseph Wall withheld a jail sentence and imposed two years of probation in April 2018. At the time, Morse had not yet been sanctioned by professional regulators, but one of his conditions of probation was that he not work in any kind of fiduciary capacity — or as a lawyer.
After Morse’s conviction, the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended his license for one year, in 2019. Less than two years after his sentencing, Morse petitioned the Supreme Court to reinstate his license At his sentencing, he said he was devastated. “My character and integrity have been challenged. It’s as bad as it gets for a 64-year-old lawyer.”
He said if he couldn’t work as a lawyer, he didn’t know how he would support his family, including his 91-year-old mother in Florida.
In deciding to return Morse’s law license Tuesday, the Supreme Court adopted a referee’s findings that Morse had followed all the rules of suspension — like not practicing law, misleading others about his suspension, keeping up continuing education — and paid restitution.
It also decided Morse’s conduct since his suspension “has been exemplary and above reproach and that he has a proper understanding of and attitude toward the standards that are imposed on members of the bar and will act in conformity with those standards.”
Morse will repay the Office of Lawyer Regulation about $5,450 for the cost of it bringing the ethics actions against him.
The OLR had charged Morse in June 2016 with six counts of misconduct, including conduct involving dishonesty, fraud or deceit and misrepresentation in his handling of the same estate, but suspended its proceedings once Morse was charged criminally.
Before reaching his plea agreement, Morse moved to dismiss the charges on the grounds that as a personal representative, he was the owner of the money at issue and he couldn’t steal from himself.
The judge agreed with the prosecution that such an interpretation would irrationally allow every personal representative to take estate assets before probate was complete and denied the motion.