WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The Biden Administration’s recent withdrawal of climate activist Elizabeth Klein for deputy secretary of the Interior rekindled the debate over a controversial four-year-old practice of the placing of privately funded, activist lawyers in the offices of state attorneys general (AGs).
Industry sources say that Klein’s tenure at the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at New York University’s School of Law, a Michael Bloomberg funded project that has paid the salaries of special assistant attorneys general, or SAAGs, in many blue states, was at least part of the reason why senators from two energy rich states, Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, asked for the withdrawal.
(According to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Klein will still serve at Interior but in another capacity.)
Among other actions, the Bloomberg-funded lawyers have assisted in climate change lawsuits that some states have brought against BP, Citgo and Chevron, and over 20 other fossil fuel companies alleging they are responsible for damage caused by climate change – suits, some defense lawyers say, rely more on PR campaigns that sound legal arguments.
Former Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna, who is about to publish a white paper investigating the practices, told Legal Newsline that it’s “totally inappropriate” for private money to leverage the power of an attorney general’s office to pursue an agenda.
“Imagine the uproar there would be if the National Rifle Association placed lawyers with AG offices to advance a Second Amendment agenda,” McKenna said.
The problem, McKenna said, is that state ethics rules regarding the practice are loose, or they don’t exist at all.
“No one would have imagined this occurring,” he said.
The remedy, he said, is revising the guidelines of professional conduct for government attorneys, and having state legislatures approve legislation banning the practice.
“But most importantly AGs should not be bringing them on staff in the first place,” he said.