In re Petition for Disciplinary Action against Wesley R. Martins, a Minnesota Attorney, Registration No. 0068214. ...

CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedAugust 13, 2025
DocketA240417
StatusPublished

This text of In re Petition for Disciplinary Action against Wesley R. Martins, a Minnesota Attorney, Registration No. 0068214. ... (In re Petition for Disciplinary Action against Wesley R. Martins, a Minnesota Attorney, Registration No. 0068214. ...) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Petition for Disciplinary Action against Wesley R. Martins, a Minnesota Attorney, Registration No. 0068214. ..., (Mich. 2025).

Opinion

STATE OF MINNESOTA

IN SUPREME COURT

A24-0417

Original Jurisdiction Per Curiam

In re Petition for Disciplinary Action against Filed: August 13, 2025 Wesley R. Martins, a Minnesota Attorney, Office of Appellate Courts Registration No. 0068214.

________________________

Susan M. Humiston, Director, Joseph Ambroson, Assistant Director, Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility, Saint Paul, Minnesota, for petitioner.

Wesley R. Martins, Duluth, Minnesota, pro se.

S Y L L A B U S

1. Tribal courts are jurisdictions for the purpose of authorizing reciprocal

attorney discipline under Rule 12(d), Rules on Lawyers Professional Responsibility.

2. The discipline imposed by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe on respondent

Wesley R. Martins—specifically a one-year suspension from the practice of law, a public

reprimand, and the requirement of a public apology—is substantially different than the

discipline warranted in the State of Minnesota for Martins’s misconduct.

3. A public reprimand is the appropriate discipline for Wesley R. Martins’s

misconduct before the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Court of Central Jurisdiction.

1 O P I N I O N

PER CURIAM.

The Director of the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility (the Director)

filed a petition under Rule 12(d) of the Rules on Lawyers Professional Responsibility

(RLPR) requesting that we impose reciprocal discipline against respondent Wesley R.

Martins. In August 2023, the courts of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, a federally

recognized Indian tribe, determined that Martins committed professional misconduct

before the courts of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Court of Central Jurisdiction. The

Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Court of Appeals suspended Martins from the practice of law

for one year, issued a public reprimand, and required Martins to make a public apology to

the presiding judge in the matter in which Martins’s misconduct took place. Because this

discipline is substantially different than the discipline warranted in the State of Minnesota

for Martins’s misconduct, we decline to impose identical discipline, and instead impose a

public reprimand.

FACTS

Rule 12(d), RLPR, states that “a final adjudication in another jurisdiction that a

lawyer had committed certain misconduct shall establish conclusively the misconduct for

purposes of disciplinary proceedings in [the State of] Minnesota,” unless we determine

otherwise. The following facts were established through Martins’s disciplinary

proceedings before the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Court of Appeals (hereinafter, “Mille

Lacs Band Court of Appeals”).

2 Wesley R. Martins was admitted to practice law in the State of Minnesota in 1970

and has no prior discipline in Minnesota state court. Martins’s discipline in this case arose

from his conduct in one client matter before the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Court of

Central Jurisdiction.

On May 8, 2023, Martins was scheduled to appear remotely at a 1:30 p.m. hearing

before the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe District Court. Martins did not appear until 1:52

p.m., and when he arrived, he informed the court that he was not ready to proceed. The

court continued the matter, and scheduled a remote trial on the merits for May 24 at

1:30 p.m. On that later trial date, Martins was once again late, not appearing until 1:37

p.m. Martins requested that the court place him in a virtual break-out room with his client.

At some point after the court did so, Martins left the break-out room to make a remote

appearance in a different court, without advising the presiding judge that he was leaving

the break-out room or the remote hearing altogether. Martins ultimately returned to the

virtual hearing before the Mille Lacs Band Court at 2:50 p.m., but the court had already

adjourned due to Martins’s absence. The matter was rescheduled for a second time due to

Martins’s conduct.

The presiding district court judge filed two ethics complaints with the Mille Lacs

Band Court of Appeals, one for each hearing at which Martins arrived late. Martins

submitted a written response to the complaints, in which he acknowledged that he was late

for court on both May 8 and May 24, but argued that he had simply overscheduled himself,

and that “[i]f an ethical violation is involved here, it comes on the back of trying to serve

the needs of as many of our communit[ies] as possible.” Martins stated that the complaints

3 did not show “that the Court here was placed at some disadvantage” because of his conduct.

Martins also stated that he believed the presiding judge should have handled the matter

privately with Martins rather than filing a disciplinary complaint. The Mille Lacs Band

Court of Appeals held an in-person hearing on the ethics complaints on August 15, 2023.

Despite having been mailed notice of the hearing, Martins did not appear.

On August 28, the Mille Lacs Band Court of Appeals issued an order disciplining

Martins. The court rejected Martins’s assertion that the disciplinary action was

unnecessary, stating that Martins’s conduct required the district court judge to file a

complaint under Mille Lacs Court of Central Jurisdiction Rule 50 (which incorporates the

Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct). The court also disagreed with Martins’s

assertion that there was no harm to his client’s or the tribal court’s interests. The court

explained that beyond his lack of preparedness, “[e]xacerbating this matter further is that

. . . Martins failed to appear before [the Mille Lacs Band Court of Appeals] to explain his

conduct, despite being given a chance to do so,” which conveyed “disrespect to [the Mille

Lacs Band Court of Appeals] and its processes.”

The Mille Lacs Band Court of Appeals found that Martins’s conduct violated Minn.

R. Prof. Conduct 1.3, which requires diligent client representation, 1 as well as Minn. R.

Prof. Conduct 1.1, which requires competent client representation. The court concluded

that the appropriate sanctions were: (1) a public reprimand; (2) a one-year suspension from

practice before Mille Lacs Band courts; and (3) a public apology to the presiding judge for

1 See Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 1.3, comment 2 (stating that a “lawyer’s workload must be controlled so that each matter can be handled competently”).

4 implying that the judge “acted with some ulterior motive in bringing forward his

complaint.” Martins did not report the discipline to the Director’s office. Rather, the

Director’s office learned from the Mille Lacs Band in October 2023 that Martins had been

disciplined.

ANALYSIS

Rule 12(d), RLPR, allows the Director to petition for reciprocal discipline based

upon the knowledge “that a lawyer licensed to practice in Minnesota has been publicly

disciplined . . . in another jurisdiction.” Rule 12(d) provides that we may “impose the

identical discipline [as the originating jurisdiction] unless it appears that discipline

procedures in the other jurisdiction were unfair, or the imposition of the same discipline

would be unjust or substantially different from discipline warranted in [the State of]

Minnesota.” If we decline to impose identical discipline, we may impose a different

sanction. In re Marcellus, 13 N.W.3d 679, 685 (Minn. 2024); Rule 12(d), RLPR. In

making the determination regarding reciprocal discipline, we are guided by the principle

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In re Petition for Disciplinary Action against Wesley R. Martins, a Minnesota Attorney, Registration No. 0068214. ..., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-petition-for-disciplinary-action-against-wesley-r-martins-a-minn-2025.