Radio Commentary Interview With Bruce Murphy

Last night I interviewed muckraking journalist and editor of Milwaukee Magazine Bruce Murphy. The interview can be found here. He writes a great column for the magazine called Murphy's Law. We spend the first part of the interview talking about a story that appeared in the March issue of the magazine by reporter Geoff Davidian called "Lawyers Run Amok: Members of the Club." The story deals with the problems of Wisconsin's Office of Lawyer Regulation, especially in light of the scandal involving former Winnebago County District Attorney Joseph Paulus. Unfortunately the article is not online and it is difficult to get Milwaukee Magazine up here. Some troubling information from the story:

• Wisconsin leads the Midwest and the nation in the percent of its lawyers against whom complaints were filed. 11% vs. 9.6% national average.
• Compared to the Midwest and the nation, Wisconsin pursued formal charges against a smaller percentage of lawyers accused of misconduct: 1.6% vs. a 4% national average.
• Since 2000 in Wisconsin, the Office of Lawyer Regulation has received more than 11,000 misconduct complaints from judges, lawyers, clients, and others, leading to at least two dozen disbarments – about 2 disbarments for every 1,000 complaints.

In the interview Bruce also takes on Charlie Sykes and mentions Jim Romenesko's Media News, a column very popular among journalists and media watchers.