Xavier Solis

Introduction

On Monday, September 14, 2026, Kenosha County District Attorney Xavier Solis had his Wisconsin law license suspended effective immediately. A memo released that day by the state’s Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) announced the suspension for “willfully failing to cooperate with one or more OLR investigations into alleged misconduct.” As Wisconsin Public Radio put it, the county’s top prosecutor was “now barred from practicing law in Wisconsin” — a sitting district attorney, roughly twenty months into his first term. The suspension is an interim, administrative action tied to non-cooperation with regulators — not an adjudicated finding of misconduct — and no charges have been reported. The memo does not describe what the investigations concern, and the alleged misconduct it references has not been made public.

Background Information

Solis was admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 2013, according to state records reported by WPR, and worked as a private defense attorney before entering politics. He had no experience as a prosecutor when he ran for district attorney in November 2024, winning as a Republican against Carli McNeill, a Democrat who had served as the second-ranking lawyer in the Kenosha County DA’s office. He took office in January 2025.

His tenure was turbulent from the start: the office struggled with vacancies and with resignations by experienced prosecutors. In February 2026, Judge David Hughes sanctioned Solis for filing AI-drafted court documents containing hallucinated case citations without the disclosure county court policy required. In April 2026, Judge Jodi Meier said she would consider sanctions in a separate case after Solis missed a deadline to produce witness background reports in a homicide case and delivered digital evidence hours after a trial had begun; she called the late filings “extremely unacceptable.” Regulators have not connected any of that history to the OLR investigations. A WPR photo caption shows him in March 2026 answering questions about a 1970s cold case — still actively serving months before the suspension.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

The event that stripped Solis of his ability to serve was not a trial or a verdict but a disciplinary memo. On September 14, 2026, the OLR announced that his license had been suspended effective immediately for “willfully failing to cooperate with one or more OLR investigations into alleged misconduct.” The Wisconsin Examiner reported that the memo also states Solis violated a Wisconsin Supreme Court rule allowing lawyers under OLR investigation to be suspended when they do not comply with deadlines to provide information.

The rule invoked is one of several cooperation requirements covering failures to disclose facts and circumstances, to turn over evidence, or to meet OLR deadlines. The memo, though, stops at the procedural violation — it does not identify the grievances behind the investigations, who filed them, or what conduct they concern. Stephen Kelley, a spokesperson for the state court system, told the Wisconsin Examiner that the only information available to the public is the rule Solis is alleged to have violated.

The action is also rare. Under Wisconsin’s system, “any person” can file a grievance with the OLR, which decides whether to investigate; in 2025 only 123 matters — about six percent of grievances received — were referred for investigation, and the state Supreme Court suspended six lawyers’ licenses all of last year. Solis was suspended under a procedure reserved for a small fraction of complaints, yet no description of the alleged misconduct is public. He did not immediately respond to WPR’s emailed questions, and no charges or formal misconduct findings against him have been reported.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The immediate consequence was structural. Wisconsin law requires district attorneys to hold a valid law license, so the moment the suspension took effect, Solis could no longer perform the job to which he was elected. Deputy District Attorney Rosamaria Delgado began serving as interim DA. In a statement to 620 WTMJ, she said administrative staff and she “will continue to oversee the day-to-day operations of the office,” and that she would take over management and reassignment of Solis’s caseload “until such time as District Attorney Solis’ license to practice law is reinstated or, until further direction is received from the Governor’s Office.”

It remains unclear what the suspension will mean for Solis’s future in the seat. Wisconsin’s governor typically appoints lawyers to fill mid-term district attorney vacancies, so a prolonged suspension could eventually force an appointment decision in Kenosha County. No public statement from Solis about the memo had been reported in the days that followed.

Current Status

As of this writing, Solis’s license remains suspended, and state records list him publicly as having a suspended license for disciplinary reasons. Nothing public indicates the OLR investigations have concluded or what they concern.

Wisconsin’s court rules do provide a path back: a license suspended under these rules is reinstated automatically if, within 18 months, the OLR determines that the lawyer has since cooperated with the investigation — a standard the Examiner describes as disclosing what happened and cooperating with regulators to their “reasonable satisfaction.” Whether and how quickly Solis takes that path will largely determine whether he can return to practicing law — and to the office he was elected to hold.

Impact on Their Career/Life

For a lawyer, a suspended license is a near-total stop. Solis cannot practice law in Wisconsin while it stands, which freezes the career he built after his 2013 admission to the bar and functionally removes him from the elected office he won in November 2024. The interim arrangement could harden into something more permanent: Delgado’s statement notes the office has sought direction from the state, and mid-term DA vacancies normally go to gubernatorial appointees.

The suspension also compounds a tenure already marked by judicial frustration — the February 2026 AI sanctions and the April 2026 evidentiary delays are now part of the public record of his time in office, though regulators have not linked them to the OLR matters. A district attorney sidelined within two years of taking office faces inevitable questions about whether he can or should remain in the role.

What is not on the record matters just as much. This suspension is an interim, administrative action for failing to cooperate with investigators — not a finding that Solis engaged in misconduct, and no charges have been reported. The substance of the alleged misconduct referenced in the OLR memo has not been made public, and until regulators or the courts say more, the full story of why Kenosha County’s top prosecutor lost his law license remains unknown.