Kenosha County DA's law license reinstated; here's what we know

KENOSHA, Wis. - The Wisconsin Supreme Court's Office of Lawyer Regulation on Tuesday reinstated the law license of Kenosha County District Attorney Xavier Solis, less than 24 hours after the office suspended it.  

Law license reinstated

What we know:

A memorandum from the Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) said Solis' law license was suspended on Sept. 14 for "failing to cooperate with one or more OLR investigations." Another memorandum, dated Sept. 15, announced Solis' license to practice law has now been reinstated from that suspension.

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What we don't know:

It's not immediately clear why, specifically, Solis had his law license suspended in the first place or why the OLR lifted its suspension. The OLR said it cannot release any information.

Solis' complaint history and disciplinary record may offer some insight into this license suspension. FOX6 News requested those today, but it could be a long process to get them.

What has Xavier Solis said?

What they're saying:

FOX6 News tried to reach Solis about the suspension on Monday but never heard back. On Tuesday, the Kenosha County District Attorney's Office said it had no comment on the matter.

Solis later issued a statement Tuesday that did not answer FOX6's questions about the suspension and reinstatement of his law license:

"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."

FOX6 reached out to Solis again and stopped by his office, but he did not respond for an interview or comment. FOX6 also stopped by pretrial court, which listed on his calendar that he was supposed to be there, but he was not.

Why was DA's license suspended?

Dig deeper:

Attorney Nate Cade of Cade Law Group has been practicing law for 30 years and has never seen a case where a district attorney had their law license suspended while serving in that office.

Cade said that Solis likely had a warning about his license suspension before it happened, but he also said that it is not uncommon for a lawyer to have their license suspended for not replying to the OLR – which Cade said could be what happened.

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"More likely than not, it was probably just a simple miscommunication issue," Cade said. "Whatever it is, it’s small in nature. It’s not like it’s something so egregious, and they (the OLR) said ‘Oh, we changed our mind.’ It has to be small for that kind of turnaround.

"I don’t think the public should have any concern because it shows the Office of Lawyer Regulations and the Supreme Court is on top of things."

Xavier Solis sanctioned

The backstory:

In February, Kenosha County Judge David Hughes sanctioned Solis for using "hallucinated" and false citations, and failing to disclose the use of artificial intelligence. The judge also dismissed two criminal cases Solis' office filed, ruling those cases should not have been sent to trial years ago.

The cases involved three men, two of whom had open cases in Kenosha County. They were charged in connection to a break-in at a village of Bristol trucking company back in 2023, and stealing more than $60,000 worth of items from the trailers.

The cases were charged under then-District Attorney Michael Graveley. Two of the three men charged were bound over for trial in 2023. But the case has remained open for nearly three years. In fall 2024, Solis was elected district attorney. He was sworn in, in January 2025.

That summer, defense attorneys for the men asked the court to dismiss the cases because the evidence did not support probable cause that they committed the crimes charged. After months of time to prepare, defense attorneys said the state missed multiple deadlines. The defense requested the court to dismiss the case on the merits and for failure to prosecute.

In January 2026, Solis filed a reply on the defense motion to dismiss, but the defense attorneys had something to say about that. The defense attorneys noted it failed to address the primary issues and alleged that Solis' reply "appears to be riddled with what are called ‘AI hallucinations,’ including bogus, AI-generated case citations."

Editor's note: This story was updated to include additional information.

KenoshaNews