A free speech protected review of the public record regarding Kyle Benjamin Hanson and the Wisconsin Supreme Court lawyer discipline proceeding captioned Office of Lawyer Regulation v. Kyle Hanson, case number 2014AP1795-D.
According to the Wisconsin Supreme Court's own calendar and case synopses for the November 1, 2016 oral argument session, the Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) filed professional misconduct charges against Attorney Kyle Hanson, alleging he violated two rules of professional conduct:
After an evidentiary disciplinary hearing, the court-appointed referee determined that Kyle Hanson had violated both rules of professional conduct. The referee recommended that the Wisconsin Supreme Court privately reprimand Hanson and require him to pay the costs incurred by the OLR and the referee.
Source: Wisconsin Supreme Court Calendar and Case Synopses, November 2016, publicly published by the Wisconsin Court System.
A man who will lie to a Wisconsin Circuit Court judge will lie to his own client. We know this because that is what happened to Lynn Gendron.
Lynn Gendron hired Kyle Hanson because by all outward appearances he was a respected attorney in Wisconsin — a University of Wisconsin Law School graduate (cum laude), a partner at Hanson Law Group, LLP, the son of an established Madison law family, and an attorney who had been formally licensed to practice before the Michigan court handling her matter. He looked credible. He sounded credible. He was credentialed where he needed to be.
She paid Kyle Hanson a large retainer to represent her in what she and her family considered a clear winning case. She trusted him because everything on the surface said she could.
Rather than litigate the case Lynn paid him to litigate, Hanson pressured Lynn to accept a settlement of approximately $6,000+. In his own words, he told her "how great it would be for her to have that money and this behind her." Based on his representations as her attorney — an attorney she trusted — Lynn agreed.
It was a lie. A blatant one.
Lynn never saw a single dollar of that settlement money.
Kyle Hanson kept all of it.
The retainer she paid him — gone. The settlement he convinced her to accept — gone. After all the trust she placed in him, after all the promises about how the settlement would be a fresh start, Lynn was left with nothing but the experience of having been lied to by her own attorney.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court already established, through the disciplinary proceeding in OLR v. Hanson, 2014AP1795-D, that Kyle Hanson knowingly made a false statement to a Wisconsin Circuit Court judge. A court-appointed referee, after a full evidentiary hearing, found that Hanson had violated two rules of professional conduct, including the rule that prohibits an attorney from being dishonest with a tribunal.
If a man will lie to a sitting judge in his black robe, he will lie to a client behind closed office doors. Lynn Gendron's experience is consistent with the conduct the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation already documented.
A formal grievance was filed with the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, the body that supervises lawyers who practice in Michigan. The complaint correspondence is being prepared for publication on this site, with private third-party identifying information redacted to protect the complainant's privacy.
AGC File No. 19-1545
According to the Wisconsin Supreme Court's own published case synopsis:
"The charges of professional misconduct against Hanson arise out of his representation of C.M. and A.M. in a civil lawsuit. C.M. and A.M. sued the owners of a neighboring cottage alleging that the defendants' construction of a new garage on their property had diverted the normal flow of water into C.M. and A.M.'s cottage and had caused serious flooding. Hanson took over the representation of C.M. and A.M. in this case in 2012, following a remand from the Court of Appeals in late 2011."
According to the Court's calendar, on April 4, 2013, opposing counsel filed motions including a motion for summary judgment and motion for sanctions. Defense counsel sent the materials to Hanson's office in Barrington, Illinois. Hanson acknowledged receiving them.
Hanson did not appear at the May 8, 2013 motion hearing. The circuit court orally granted the defendants' motions.
On May 14, 2013, Hanson sent a letter to the circuit court stating:
"I did not receive notice of the May 8, 2013, hearing date for Defendants' Motion in Limine, for Summary Judgment, and for Sanctions."
The Office of Lawyer Regulation filed a complaint alleging that statement had been false — that Hanson had in fact been served with the motion materials, which contained the notice establishing the May 8, 2013 hearing date. After an evidentiary hearing, the referee agreed.
Kyle Benjamin Hanson
Attorney at Law • Partner, Hanson Law Group, LLP
From Hanson's own promotional materials: "Kyle Hanson signs the Supreme Court Roll as his father and sister watch. Every attorney admitted to the State Bar of Wisconsin since the state was a territory has signed the roll. Hanson will join his father and sister in practice."
Hanson was admitted to the State Bar of Wisconsin in June 2011. The Office of Lawyer Regulation filed its complaint against him in 2014, less than three years after he was sworn in.
The following documents are published here as part of a free speech protected public interest review. All materials are either public records, matters of public concern, or have been redacted to remove private third-party information.
"The Office of Lawyer Regulation has asked the state Supreme Court to discipline Kyle Hanson, a Madison attorney accused of lying to opposing counsel and a judge."
"According to an OLR complaint filed Aug. 6, problems arose when Hanson, of Hanson Law Group, represented Craig and Amy Muenchow in a property dispute."
"The judge denied Hanson's motion, and ordered Hanson to pay attorney fees and expenses since he engaged in 'egregious behavior by their failure to follow procedural rules'..."
— Wisconsin Law Journal, Sep 8, 2014
"1:30 p.m.: Office of Lawyer Regulation v. Kyle Hanson is a lawyer discipline case stemming from an OLR complaint filed in August 2013. The OLR alleged that Hanson, a Madison attorney with offices in both Illinois and Wisconsin, had lied to a judge that he had not received an opposing party's motions in 2014 and therefore broke two rules of professional conduct."
"After a disciplinary hearing, a court-appointed referee concluded that Hanson had broken the rules and suggested that he be privately reprimanded."
— Wisconsin Law Journal, Oct 31, 2016
All screenshots below were captured from Kyle Hanson's own public attorney profiles and publicly available news sources.
"A lawyer shall not knowingly: (1) make a false statement of fact or law to a tribunal or fail to correct a false statement of material fact or law previously made to the tribunal by the lawyer..."
"It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to: ... (c) engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation..."
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Truth is an absolute defense. Statements about the conduct of attorneys contained in official court records and published news reporting are protected speech of the highest public interest.
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