Attorney Edward Harness of Milwaukee, WI; ethical troll

The state of Wisconsin presented Edward W. Harness with a law license in 2000 after he graduated from Marquette University School of Law.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) found Eddie guilty of engaging in the following misconduct.

• A woman hired Eddie to represent her in a bankruptcy with a five-year period
• The client began to suspect the monthly mortgage payments she had made to Eddie were being misapplied
• She contacted Eddie on numerous occasions and asked him to take steps to correct the error
• Eddie took no action regarding the misapplied payments for the entirety of the five-year bankruptcy period, despite acknowledging the problem in court
• Failed to sign an authorization allowing the client to attempt to remedy the misapplied payments on her own
• Failed to take any action regarding the client’s assertion that she had been charged twice for an October payment
• Failed to answer questions about problems with misapplied payments
• Failed to communicate with the client about how the bankruptcy process could address her problems with the misapplied payments
• During the five-year bankruptcy period, routinely failed to return the client’s calls
• After the client terminated Eddie, he failed to respond to requests by the client’s new attorney for her file for more than one year and then provided an incomplete file

As a direct consequence of his misconduct, the enablers for Attorney Misfits sitting on the Wisconsin Supreme Court punished Eddie by gifting him with a complimentary reprimand.

As we speak (ca. November 2022), Eddie practices his so-called brand of law with the Harness Law Offices at 316 North Milwaukee Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.