In the Matter of Bar Admission of Vanderperren

2003 WI 37, 661 N.W.2d 27, 261 Wis. 2d 150, 2003 Wisc. LEXIS 405
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedMay 13, 2003
Docket02-1739-BA
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 2003 WI 37 (In the Matter of Bar Admission of Vanderperren) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In the Matter of Bar Admission of Vanderperren, 2003 WI 37, 661 N.W.2d 27, 261 Wis. 2d 150, 2003 Wisc. LEXIS 405 (Wis. 2003).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

¶ 1. This is a review, pursuant to SCR 40.08(5),1 of the final decision of the Board of Bar Examiners (Board) declining to certify that the petitioner, Tara Jean Vanderperren, satisfied the character and fitness requirement for admission to the Wisconsin bar set forth in SCR 40.060L).2 We reverse and remand the matter to the Board for further proceedings.

[155]*155¶ 2. We fully appreciate the yeoman's service performed by the Board in conducting its full investigation of Ms. Vanderperren's background and circumstances surrounding her past conduct, much of which was less than admirable. The duty to examine applicants' qualifications for bar admission rests initially on the Board,, and this court relies heavily on the Board's investigation and evaluation; however, this court retains supervisory authority and has the ultimate responsibility for regulating admission to the Wisconsin bar. See In re Bar Admission of Rippl, 2002 WI 15, ¶ 3, 250 Wis. 2d 519, 523, 639 N.W.2d 553.

¶ 3. The Board's refusal to certify that Ms. Vanderperren satisfied the character and fitness requirements for admission to the bar was based primarily on what the Board viewed, following its investigation, as her less than forthright and complete responses to questions on her application for admission to Ham-line University School of Law, and her application to be admitted to the Wisconsin bar. Of specific concern to the Board were her descriptions of her past alcohol consumption and her resulting difficulties and contacts with the police and university authorities. These incidents also gave us pause; however, on balance, we determine that they were not of sufficient gravity to preclude her admission to the Wisconsin bar on character and fitness grounds. We note that all of the incidents cited by the Board involved Ms. Vanderperren's alcohol consumption and all occurred when she was younger. In fact, the last reported incident identified by the Board involving her excessive [156]*156alcohol consumption occurred in 1997 when Ms. Vanderperren was a law student, and the last reported alcohol-related incident for which she received a citation from the police occurred in 1994. We believe that this dearth of reported alcohol problems in the last five years demonstrates that, as Ms. Vanderperren claims, •she no longer abuses alcohol and has rehabilitated herself.

¶ 4. The Board's adverse decision regarding Ms. Vanderperren's application was also based on what the Board viewed as her lack of candor in revealing her past difficulties with alcohol in the answers she supplied to questions on the bar application form as well as her answers to questions on her law school application. We note, however, that Ms. Vanderperren corrected those applications and ultimately fully divulged her past history in her amended bar applications and supplemental materials; she also corrected her law school application shortly after she began her classes at Ham-line. We think she satisfied SCR 40.06(3)3 because Ms. Vanderperren corrected any misapprehension that she knew about arising in connection with her applications. We believe that to preclude her admission based on what might have been a less than complete disclosure in her initial bar application or law school application [157]*157would depreciate her subsequent efforts to comply and provide full disclosure to the Board.

¶ 5. Here, as was true in the recent Rippl case, the Board may have felt constrained to find that this applicant's past actions and lack of candor precluded certifying her character and fitness for purpose of bar admission; we determine,- however, that the incidents the Board relied on, now corrected and fully disclosed, are not of sufficient gravity to support a conclusion that Ms. Vanderperren should be barred from admission to practice law in this state. Again, like in Rippl, while some of the incidents cited by the Board are troubling, on balance, we conclude that they do not demonstrate that she lacks the character and fitness for admission to the bar of this state. Accordingly, we reverse.

¶ 6. Tara Jean Vanderperren was born and raised in the Green Bay area. She attended Edgewood College in Madison and graduated from St. Norbert College in DePere in December of 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business. In December of 1995 she applied for admission and was accepted at Hamline University School of Law in Minnesota. She obtained her Juris Doctor degree from Hamline in December of 1998. She subsequently took and passed the Minnesota bar examination. After a character and fitness investigation in that state, she was admitted to practice law in Minnesota in April 2000.4

¶ 7. Ms. Vanderperren moved back to Green Bay in October of 2000 and applied for admission to the Wisconsin bar on December 4, 2000. She passed the February 2001 Wisconsin bar examination.

[158]*158¶ 8. The Board subsequently conducted an investigation to determine Vanderperren's character and fitness to be admitted to the practice of law in this state. In response to questions raised by the Board during its investigation, Vanderperren twice amended her application and submitted supplemental material including written explanations about certain events that had occurred before she was in law school; she also provided further explanations about certain information in her law school application and events that had occurred during law school.

¶ 9. The Board's investigator filed a report that disputed some of the explanations proffered by Ms. Vanderperren and concluded as follows:

There are many troubling issues in Ms. Vanderperren's application. For example, the sheer amount of inconsistencies represents a complete lack of regard for the application process and the need for full disclosure.
It is also particularly troubling that Ms. Vanderperren seems to shirk responsibility for her actions. Not only did she attempt to conceal or greatly minimize her misdeeds to the Board, but she makes excuses for her lack of candor.

¶ 10. Based on that investigative report, the Board notified Ms. Vanderperren by letter dated June 25, 2001, that it intended to deny her application for admission to the Wisconsin bar. The Board's "Intent to Deny" letter asserted that Ms. Vanderperren's unlawful conduct in the past, and her incomplete and untruthful disclosures on her bar application as well as her law school application, were relevant to her character and fitness to practice law under the provisions of BA [159]*1596.02(a), (b), (c), (d), (g), and (j) of the Rules of the Board of Bar Examiners.5

¶ 11. In addition, the Board's letter cited BA 6.03(a), (b), (c), (d), (g), (h), and (i) as the basis for its adverse determination in this matter.6

[160]*160¶ 12. The Board's Intent to Deny letter signed by its executive director informed Ms. Vanderperren that:

The Board is concerned by your series of citations, by the underlying conduct they evince, and by your selective disclosure of those incidents to Hamline University Law School and to this agency.

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Bluebook (online)
2003 WI 37, 661 N.W.2d 27, 261 Wis. 2d 150, 2003 Wisc. LEXIS 405, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-matter-of-bar-admission-of-vanderperren-wis-2003.