Bentonville man named Arkansas solicitor general

Resume includes stint at Wal-Mart

LITTLE ROCK -- Lee Rudofsky, a former Wal-Mart lawyer, will become Arkansas' solicitor general.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announced the hire Thursday. Thirty-seven other states have solicitors general.

Rudofsky will help with major consumer protection cases and assist with state and federal appeals cases, according to Rutledge.

The solicitor general's duties include advising on all matters before the Arkansas Supreme Court, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. The duties had been handled by the office's deputies, chief deputy and the attorney general in the past.

"Lee was one of several candidates from across the country that reached out after we announced this position back in March," said Rutledge spokesman Judd Deere. "Several expressed interest and chose to apply."

Rutledge said Rudofsky is the state's first solicitor general, but R.B. Friedlander also was given the title when she worked in the attorney general's office in the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to multiple news articles from that era. It's unclear if others have also served in that capacity.

But Deere said Rudofsky's classification is different than any predecessors'.

"The reason we are calling Lee the state's first solicitor general is because we had to seek approval through the General Assembly to reclassify a position. There has never been a designated solicitor general at the Attorney General's office."

Rudofsky will be paid a $120,000 annual salary. The Joint Budget Committee's Personnel Subcommittee authorized a maximum salary of $124,595 for the position in March.

At the time, Rutledge proposed increasing her office's operations budget for fiscal 2016 by $116,798 and eliminating a courier position that had a maximum annual salary of $29,351.

The subcommittee recommended authorizing the attorney general to add a solicitor general, but it didn't support the proposed budget increase, saying Rutledge could find money for the salary elsewhere in her budget.

Rudofsky, a native of New York, graduated from Harvard Law School in 2005. He spent several years at the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis, litigating commercial and constitutional cases. He also was an adjunct professor at the George Mason University's School of Law in 2009.

Rudofsky is a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association and served as deputy general counsel to the Steve Poizner for Governor 2010 campaign in California and Romney for President Inc. in 2012.

Since 2014, Rudofsky has been an assistant general counsel for Wal-Mart.

"I am humbled by the confidence of Attorney General Rutledge," Rudofsky said in a press release. "I look forward to joining Attorney General Rutledge as she protects Arkansans from criminals and scam artists and pushes back against an overreaching federal government. It is an honor to serve Arkansans as the State's first solicitor general."

Rudofsky lives in Bentonville, but will move to central Arkansas soon. He begins work on Aug. 24, Deere said.

NW News on 07/31/2015

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