(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
A law firm based in Kenosha and Racine abruptly closed its doors last Friday, October 13, 2023, shy of three years since its opening. Criminal defendants, family court litigants, employers of the firm, and others, are speaking out about what many are calling negligent behavior from the firm’s owner. Patton Law Office, S.C. is owned by its namesake, attorney David D. Patton.
David D. Patton graduated law school in 2013 from the University of Minnesota Law School. Apart from Minnesota, he’s lived in Virginia, South Dakota, and then settled here in Wisconsin. Patton has about 10 years under his belt as an attorney.
Patton came to Wisconsin in mid 2019 and passed the Wisconsin Bar on October 15, 2019. He got a job as a public defender in January of 2020. He worked for the Kenosha Public Defender’s Office for less than a year, before he decided to work on his own and take clients privately. About a year later, he would start a multi-attorney law firm. Apart from being a lawyer, Patton is also a social justice advocate. On his website, he advertised all of his employees’ pronouns such as they/them and listed some of the employees’ sexual preferences. He called the group “The Scooby Gang.” He had an office pet turtle, and a community resource bulletin board, where clients could find healthcare providers to inject gender-affirming hormones into their body to “transition.” Patton also gave 10% discounts to clients of color. Over the next two years, Patton would hire more than ten attorneys, four paralegals , an investigator, a director of operations and client support, a legal assistant, and a virtual intake coordinator. Some attorneys had fancy titles, like “Director of Litigation,” “Director of Family Law,” and more.
For other attorneys and people working in the legal system, this didn’t seem to make sense. Very successful attorneys in the Kenosha and Racine area worked for many years or decades before hiring support staff. A lawyer has to stay extremely busy and make a lot of money to guarantee a paycheck for a single paralegal, let alone a support staff this large. Patton, as it seems, was building a house of cards.
Patton’s far-left-leaning ideology caught the attention of many prominent liberal politicians in Racine – like Mayor Cory Mason and the now-disgraced City Council President, John Tate. These politicians liked him so much, that they gave him a government loan to buy a large office building in Racine. The Mayor and Council president were present for the ribbon cutting.
The first tangible sign of the impending toppling of the house of cards that Patton built would come on September 18, 2023. Patton penned a letter to the local attorneys and judges, advising them that he was leaving the practice of law. He asked the judges to allow him to withdraw from his cases. In Wisconsin, once an attorney becomes a person’s lawyer, he or she cannot “quit” without a judge’s order. This is to protect litigants and criminal defendants. In the letter, Patton takes a jab, saying “One would hope that all judges and attorneys would be kind (or at least decent) under these circumstances. However, that has not been my experience here in (sic) SE Wisconsin legal system.”
On September 20, 2023, Patton would pen a second letter. In this letter, he contradicts his first, saying “To be clear, I am not leaving the practice of law.” He told the judges and lawyers that he is only taking an extended absence from practicing. Patton then went on to apologize for the tone of his precious letter.
According to a search ran on the online judicial database, CCAP, KCE can say that about 332 clients have Patton Law Office, S.C. as their attorneys of record. All of these clients are at risk of having no representation, or limited representation.
On October 12, 2023, two lawyers that have worked with Patton Law Office since its inception, wrote a letter to the judges in Kenosha and Racine. In the letter they say that Patton Law Office is bankrupt. It has no money to pay the many employees. The letter goes on to say that “The albatross of Patton Law’s failure hangs around Attorney Patton’s neck alone.” Since the employees of the firm that are working on cases that were prepaid to the firm will never be paid again, they are asking the judges for permission to withdraw from their cases, leaving the clients without representation. A source close to the judges suggested to KCE that the judges will probably err on the side of the defendants and deny motions to withdraw based solely on finances. After all, the clients have paid many thousands of dollars to the firm to be represented. Is it fair that they lose their lawyer? A client of Patton Law said that they were encouraged to take out a high-interest loan to pay for their legal fees. The interest is as high as 20%. KCE has been made aware that this happened often at the firm.
KCE spoke to many lawyers in the community about this scandal. They are mixed in their speculations of Patton’s actions. They all think that Patton acted negligently, at the least. Some believe he has a large amount of money and gained financially with this behavior. Others think he was simply a terrible businessman and lost all the money by overspending and biting off way more than he could chew. Either way, he risks criminal prosecution, disbarment, and more, according to legal experts that spoke to KCE on the condition of anonymity. In general, a lawyer cannot spend money from a retainer until it’s earned. For example, if an attorney received a $10,000 retainer, he or she must place that money in a trust account and can only withdraw when the hours are worked. That way, if the lawyer needs to withdraw, or is fired, the client can have the unearned portion refunded. In the case of Patton, it looks like the clients are all unable to receive refunds, as the money is all gone. There could be serious ethical repercussions for this.
(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
KCE spoke to Chief Judge Jason Rossell about the issues with Patton Law Office. He told us that he is aware of the allegations surrounding Patton Law Office, but cannot make a specific comment. He did offer us the following statement:
“Generally, the Office of Lawyer Regulation and the Fund for client protection are involved in situations such as these. In terms of substitution and withdrawal, that is a case by case, and judge by judge determination.”
If you are a client of Patton Law Office, S.C. and you have a question about your path forward, you can call your attorney and or reach out to the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation at (608) 267-7274 or the Fund for Client Protection at WLFCP@wisbar.org. You can also email or call us for guidance.
Kenosha County Eye spoke with Attorney Patton Monday afternoon. Patton confirmed that Patton Law Office is closed and denied any rumors that he has benefited financially from this issue. “Patton Law is broke and so am I,” said Patton. “In 2021, I was diagnosed with general anxiety disorder and PTSD. This past September 2, 2023 I suffered a mental breakdown. I’m currently in intensive treatment and hope to soon be on the road to recovery.”
Patton says that he pledges to make whole all clients and former employees no matter what it takes. “I took out several loans to keep the business afloat but they just weren’t enough… among other issues, growing too fast and hiring too much staff wasn’t the right thing to do.” Patton says he is currently liquidating what he can and taking steps to collect resources.
Patton told us he had several financing options for clients. One was based on credit and another was for clients who did not have good credit. Patton says he was promised that the company would take care of collections and non-payment, but said they reneged. He said too many clients did not pay which was a significant contribution to the bankrupting of the firm.
Patton says that he wishes some people had a little more compassion for his mental health issue but says he is still always willing to help somebody in need.
22 Responses
This is likely not linked to any personal political or social ideologies.
It does speak to possible grandiose and unsustainable business practices which have doomed many law firms over the years, including here in southeast Wisconsin. There are times when lawyers grew firms with supposedly good intentions but then they couldn’t sustain the business (and that happens with other businesses, too).
Surprisingly, there is no training in law school about the business of practicing law or of being an employer.
This makes it very difficult for clients and other lawyers.
Even without malicious intent — and at this time we don’t know if there was something shady here or if it was bad business practices — this hurts clients, as Kevin said, but also lawyers who have to pay annual fund assessments to cover losses clients sustain.
I wonder if this was Mr. Patton’s first time doing this.
Clearly this man robbed his clients as well as the system. The system also has robbed the clients of giving them adequate protection by not going after him as well as the firm.
This…..I’m surprised they had no classes or education about running a practice at law school. You basically better know what you are doing in terms of running a business….and this guy did not. They kind of just throw you out there.
Nope. David Patton is a salesman and a scam artist.
This law firm is like a payday loan store or a rent to own furniture store;
All three take advantage of desperate uneducated people to line their own pockets.
I am thinking of starting a payday loan store with a 10% discount for Black Indigenous and People of Color and then I am going to get a loan from the city to open a rent to own furniture store but it will be virtuous because I will paint some poems from black poets on the side of the building!
Sounds believable.
He basically bit off way more then he could chew…..received a bunch of, um, Democratic, clients….who (wait for it) didn’t pay their bills. Shocking.
The mental illness factor does fit. Not uncommon for people to believe they can do or take care of more than they really can.
The problem when a local business falls flat because of this is that the victims are visible in the community and we take it personally, of c
Liberalism IS a mental illness, so it’s redundant to even mention it as an excuse. Guess he should have become an ambulance chaser.
Wait till you hear about being a malignant republican.
Patton Law Office purchases, renovates Racine building using privately funded local loan program
https://rcedc.org/patton-law-office-purchases-renovates-racine-building-using-privately-funded-local-loan-program/
All a gang of liars and thieves
Except for being a lawyer, this situation sounds like it could be Wally.
Wow.. doors shut before they even finish finding more Woke Warriors to add to their “About us” page. Their website is still online if anyone wants a good chuckle.
Their site brags the slogan of “THIS IS THE DOPEST LAW FIRM IN RACINE” on the homepage. Classy. I would offer to rework it for them for a fee, but I assume they wouldn’t pay it similarly to their clients.
There is probably no city more hobbled by white guilt and being controlled by ‘WOKE’ ( “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination”) than Racine led by it’s dumpy mayor Cory Mason and his rubber stamping city council.
Not surprising, at one time Racine was named as one of the WORST places to live if your Black, so in a way one would think that a law practice dedicated, or so it seems, in specializing in providing services for minorities would flourish. Or not. Wonder how much the County was on the hook for if they financed the operation.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/11/08/moving-the-worst-us-cities-for-black-americans/40553101/
He should run for circuit court judge. Democrats love promoting incompetence.
The pic suggests a friend of Cory Mason which means a likely appointment to some City of Racine commission and come election time a seat on the Common Council.
Play the game and vote as directed and a person can even gain a permanent taxpayer funded City job with benefits.
Looks like Kenosha County Eye scooped Racine County Eye by a couple of days.
Probably a case of a liberal Racine news source trying to keep up with the NEW emerging leader in Racine County news.
https://racinecountyeye.com/2023/10/18/sudden-closure-of-patton-law-office/
It clearly shows here by all of the insensitive racial remarks there were clients that did pay their bills but were not adequately represented by him taking money knowing that the firm was going under is basically fraud and should be dealt as such. You know what about the clients that did pay their fees that are now left in legal limbo because of the miss actions of a particular law firm.
that john anthony ward law offers similar financing. i think patton had an office there in kenosha too. i wonder how many clients ward has bailed on as well.