Did the King of Probate steal from his clients?
By Matt Hrodey
A once-legendary Milwaukee attorney, considered a whiz at sorting through complex estate settlements, has been disbarred and ordered to pay back $1.1 million to clients – money he insists he doesn’t have and some of which, the Wisconsin Supreme Court says, was transferred to overseas accounts.
Leonard V. Brady, who has practiced law in Wisconsin since 1953 and is now in his mid-80s, has a long history in the city. He was a Milwaukee County Court Commissioner in the 1960s and even worked as a banker in town. Afterwards, working for his own firm, Christian Legal Services, he became known for taking small or complicated probate cases other lawyers steered clear of.
leonard v. brady after his arrest for contempt of court
But it was a big-ticket estate, one valued at $1.6 million and belonging to the late Catherine Pretschold, that proved key to his undoing. Heirs accused Brady of stealing, losing or misusing about $700,000 of the estate’s money. When an attorney representing the heirs deposed Brady in 2009, he refused to say what had happened to the money.
This case and at least two others were cited in the state Supreme Court decision revoking Brady’s license, which was issued Tuesday. Brady admitted that “he cannot successfully defend against multiple allegations of misconduct currently under investigation by the Office of Lawyer Regulation,” the high court opinion notes.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court has already ordered him to pay a total of $1.1 million to heirs of three different estates, awards the Supreme Court confirmed on Tuesday. Most of the money will go back to the Pretschold estate. Justices concluded Brady had misappropriated some of its money, including some “that had been sent overseas.”
One accountant’s examination of the estate found “a likelihood of commingling, embezzlement and fraud in the reporting of assets, an intent to deprive the estate of funds by Attorney Brady and numerous overcharges for services rendered.”
No criminal charges against Brady have been announced, though he’s been the subject of a federal criminal investigation. He’s already spent 35 days in jail, beginning in December 2009, after Milwaukee County Judge John DiMotto found him in contempt of court for failing to return about $188,000 of the estate’s money. Brady was released after his attorney convinced DiMotto he couldn’t find the money.
In court documents, the octogenarian attorney has hinted that some of the money could be invested in foreign “church bonds,” but it’s never been recovered.