(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
KENOSHA, Wis. — Temporary suspensions for missing regulatory deadlines are a recurring part of Wisconsin’s lawyer licensing system. A Kenosha County Eye review of state BAR records identified 1,844 suspension entries involving 1,724 different Wisconsin-licensed attorneys on nine annual lists issued between 2016 and 2026, including 16 attorneys with Kenosha addresses.
(Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office)
The records provide context for Kenosha County District Attorney Xavier Solis’ approximately one-day suspension last month. His Wisconsin law license was suspended effective September 14 after he missed a deadline to provide information requested by the Office of Lawyer Regulation. It was reinstated September 15. The temporary suspension was procedural and did not determine whether the allegations underlying the agency’s investigations were true.
Even Antioch, Illinois, Mayor Scott J. Gartner appears in the records. His Wisconsin law license was suspended May 6, 2026, and reinstated May 15, a nine-day gap. A reinstatement memorandum from the Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners confirmed that Gartner had complied with the required licensing obligations.
Hundreds of Names on Annual Suspension Lists
The nine distinct annual lists reviewed by KCE contained between 172 and 230 attorneys apiece. The most recent list, issued May 6, 2026, contained 191 names, including Gartner and two attorneys with Kenosha addresses.
The records include Wisconsin-licensed lawyers living throughout the state, as well as attorneys maintaining Wisconsin licenses while living elsewhere. Of the 1,844 suspension entries, 857 listed Wisconsin addresses. Some attorneys appeared in multiple years, which is why the number of suspension entries exceeds the number of individual lawyers.
These lists concern mandatory regulatory and licensing requirements. They document one category of temporary suspension and do not provide a complete count of every attorney suspension imposed in Wisconsin during that period.
At Least 16 Kenosha Attorneys Listed
The lists contained 17 suspension entries involving 16 different attorneys with Kenosha addresses. Two additional attorneys listed Pleasant Prairie addresses, bringing the combined total for those two communities to 18 different lawyers.
Kenosha entries appeared in multiple years: two in 2017, seven in 2018, one in 2019, two in 2020, one in 2021, two in 2022 and two in 2026. Those locations reflect the addresses recorded when the suspension notices were issued.
Reinstatement records also show that a brief suspension has happened locally before. One Kenosha attorney was suspended June 2, 2021, and reinstated June 3, a one-day gap. Another Kenosha attorney was reinstated six days after his 2017 suspension, while a third was reinstated seven days after his 2018 suspension.
How Long Does Reinstatement Take?
The records show substantial variation, with many reinstatements occurring within days or weeks and others taking considerably longer. Among 687 dated reinstatements that KCE could match unambiguously to the nine suspension lists, the median suspension lasted 40 days, or approximately six weeks. Of those, 304 occurred within 30 days and 93 within seven days.
For the most recent May 2026 suspension group, 51 documented reinstatements had a median gap of 27 days. Eleven occurred within seven days. Those figures describe the reinstatements documented in the records reviewed, rather than every attorney on the suspension list.
The elapsed time includes the period an attorney took to address the outstanding requirements. It does not, by itself, establish how long regulators took to process a completed reinstatement request.
OLR records also document quick reinstatements involving its information and cooperation requirements. During the 2024–25 fiscal year, 10 attorneys were suspended for failing to cooperate with investigations. Three were reinstated within six days and another within 25 days. Five remained suspended when the report was prepared, and one attorney’s matters were dismissed following the attorney’s death.
Solis’ approximately one-day suspension was shorter than Gartner’s nine-day suspension and substantially shorter than the median among the documented reinstatements reviewed by KCE. His license was restored September 15, allowing him to resume his duties as Kenosha County district attorney.
