The State Bar of Wisconsin moved to rescind this week an award bestowed to a lawyer after a scathing critique from Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel.

Stephan Addison was one of two former Big Law associates who faced rape charges in 2005 as a result of an encounter with a 27-year-old woman while on vacation in Wisconsin. The following year, Addison pleaded no contest to a felony charge of second-degree reckless endangerment and to two misdemeanor counts of sexual gratification.

In early April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Addison was part of a group of lawyers honored by the State Bar of Wisconsin. Addison, in particular, won the Jack DeWitt WisLAP Volunteer Award, which recognizes a lawyer, judge or group that provides assistance to the Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program, an organization that helps attorneys grappling with addiction, mental health issues and professional sanctions. That got the attention of Schimel, a Republican who in March launched a reelection campaign.

“There's been so much progress in recent years to foster a criminal justice system that welcomes sexual assault survivors and other crime victims,” Schimel said in a statement, which included an attachment of the criminal complaint and statement of facts in Addison's case. “This is a terrible lapse in judgment, and Mr. Addison's nomination should be pulled. He does not deserve to have his name listed alongside the 15 other distinguished attorneys and judges nominated this year.”

Paul Swanson, president of the State Bar of Wisconsin and a partner at Oshkosh, Wisconsin-based Steinhilber, Swanson, Mares, Marone & McDermott, said that he would recommend that Addison's nomination be withdrawn for the Jack DeWitt Award, according to local news reports, which noted that the award is often given to an individual who has experienced some form of professional adversity.

Addison's nomination has been scrubbed from the State Bar of Wisconsin's website. Swanson said in a statement that the recommendation for withdrawing Addison's award stemmed from “the seriousness of the issue of sexual assault and out of respect to survivors and victims.”

The underlying incident, as detailed in a 2010 story by The National Law Journal about the suspension of Addison and Benjamin Butler's law licenses, stemmed from an August 2005 weekend at a summer home that belonged to Addison's family in Green Lake, Wisconsin. Addison and Butler, who at the time were associates at Seyfarth Shaw and Schiff Hardin, respectively, were out drinking and socializing at a local bar, where they met a woman who agreed to drive them back to the house.

At some point, the woman drove her car to a boat ramp area and parked it, which is where an incident occurred on the hood of the vehicle. The woman filed a complaint with local police and Addison and Butler—who claimed their encounter with the woman was consensual—were charged with sexual assault. Rape charges against both men were ultimately dropped and they received sentences of probation and community service.

The Illinois Supreme Court suspended Addison's law license for 60 days in 2010, while Butler had his law license suspended for 30 days. Both were subsequently restored, although Addison and Butler also had their law licenses suspended in Wisconsin for similar 60- and 30-day intervals in 2012 as a result of the 2005 incident.

Addison, 39, now has his own practice in Medinah, Illinois, a northwestern suburb of Chicago. He did not immediately return a request for comment. Butler now lives in the Phoenix area and works at an insurance company.

As for Schimel, he's facing off against Democrat Joshua Kaul, counsel in the Madison office of Perkins Coie, in an election for Wisconsin attorney general later this year. Kaul, a former federal prosecutor, is the son of former Wisconsin Attorney General Peggy Ann Lautenschlager, who died from cancer on March 31.