Kenosha County District Attorney Xavier Solis has his Wisconsin law license back, less than 24 hours after state regulators pulled it.
On Monday the Office of Lawyer Regulation announced that Solis’ license had been suspended “because he willfully failed to co-operate with one or more OLR inquiries into alleged misconduct”. The same office then announced on Tuesday morning that the license had been reinstated.
Solis’ license was suspended Monday after he missed a deadline to provide information requested by OLR in connection with multiple complaints the agency was investigating. Under Wisconsin Supreme Court rules, attorneys are required to cooperate with OLR investigations, and the rules provide for an automatic suspension mechanism when an attorney fails to do so. OLR describes the mechanism as an automatic suspension for failure to cooperate.
The suspension was procedural and was not a determination that the allegations underlying the complaints were true.
The OLR investigations include complaints involving former Kenosha County Deputy District Attorney Andrew “Drew” Burgoyne and a matter concerning Solis’ use of artificial intelligence in a court filing.
In the AI matter, Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge David Hughes sanctioned Solis after an AI-assisted filing contained an inaccurate case citation and the use of AI was not disclosed as required by a local court policy. The sanction consisted of Hughes striking the brief from the record. There was no fine or other penalty imposed on Solis.
OLR had requested a large volume of documents and information from Solis in connection with its investigations.
State law requires that a district attorney be licensed to practice in Wisconsin. When the license was suspended, Deputy District Attorney Rosa Delgado stated that she would run the office and reassign Solis’ caseload “until District Attorney Solis’ license to practice law is reinstated or until further instructions are obtained from the Governor’s Office.” This arrangement continued for one day.
When reached by Kenosha County Eye and Heartland Post Tuesday morning, Solis provided the following statement:
“I want to sincerely thank the members of our community, as well as the many attorneys and colleagues who reached out to me with words of support and encouragement. Your calls, messages, prayers, and expressions of confidence have meant a great deal to me and my family. I am deeply grateful for the support I have received and remain committed to serving the people of Kenosha County.”
Solis, a Republican and former criminal defense attorney, won the Kenosha County DA’s race in November 2024 and took office in January 2025 as the county’s first Republican district attorney in a century.
The reinstatement will allow Solis to continue in his post as district attorney; it will not, however, close the OLR file.
