Agency suspends activist's law license

Agency suspends activist's law license
By Gary Barlow
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press
October 16, 2006

The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission has suspended gay activist Michael Bauer’s license to practice law for nine months over his handling of a trust fund for his brother.

The suspension took effect Oct. 12.

In 1992, Bauer’s brother Jerry Bauer created a $1.2-million trust fund to benefit his children and made Michael Bauer the trustee of the fund. The IARDC ruling said Bauer breached his fiduciary trust by borrowing $297,000 from the trust fund when “his financial condition made it unlikely that he would be able to repay those funds.”

The ruling noted that Bauer had reached an agreement with his brother prior to the IARDC’s involvement in the case. That agreement specified that the $297,000 Bauer borrowed is to be repaid from his expected inheritance from his parents. Bauer also stepped down as trustee of the fund.

The Illinois Supreme Court, which has final say in disciplinary proceedings involving attorneys, approved Bauer’s suspension.

In a statement, Bauer said the case involved a private, not public, matter.

“I’m continually amazed that there are a few people in our community who have the time to be obsessed with me and my personal life and yet seem to have so little time to understand their own ineffectiveness,” Bauer said.