The Bureau of Legislative Research has hired the law firm of Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard to represent the bureau in connection with a federal investigation and to help it deal with requests for state lawmakers' records.
The bureau decided to hire the Mitchell Williams law firm after "we looked at several law firms and talked to several people through a process of elimination of making sure there were no conflicts out there with law firms and their roles either lobbying or representing entities within the Legislature," bureau Director Marty Garrity said Monday.
"We settled on this law firm and Jane Duke, with her vast experience as a former U.S. attorney and in the U.S. attorney's office, was a good fit for us," she said.
The Mitchell Williams law firm has completed a conflict-of-interest search and "determined that it has no conflict of interest that prevents the Firm from representing the BLR," Duke said in a letter to Garrity. Duke said the firm couldn't estimate the total cost of its work because it doesn't know how much work is involved.
The law firm's registered lobbyists include former Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's chief of staff, Morril Harriman; Republican U.S. Rep. French Hill's wife, Martha Hill; former Arkansas Lottery Commissioner Derrick Smith; and Charles Cliett Jr., Doak Foster, Allan Gates, T. Ark Monroe III, Brian Pipkin, Kendra Pruitt, Zachary Steadman, Marcella Taylor, Jeffrey Thomas and Walter Wright Jr., on the basis of a search of the Arkansas secretary of state's website.
Garrity declined to disclose the other firms that the bureau considered hiring because, she said, "I don't want to make it seem like there were necessarily issues with the other law firms that we didn't select."
The Legislative Council on June 16 approved Garrity's request to hire an outside law firm, after the council's executive subcommittee recommended approval of the request on June 15, with no discussion at either meeting.
A Legislative Council co-chairman, Rep. David Branscum, R-Marshall, declined to comment Monday when asked about the target of the federal investigation. The other co-chairman, Sen. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs, said he didn't know about the matter.
During the regular session earlier this year, the Legislature granted Arkansas Legislative Audit and the bureau authority to hire outside legal counsel. Legislative Auditor Roger Norman said Legislative Audit hasn't hired an outside firm but sought the authority to do so after the bureau decided to do so. The Legislative Council oversees government operations when the Legislature is not in session. The Legislative Audit staff perform financial audits of public agencies.
The bureau's hiring of the Mitchell Williams law firm follows the federal indictment of former Sen. Jon Woods, a Republican from Springdale. In a related matter, former Rep. Micah Neal, also a Republican from Springdale, pleaded guilty to one count of honest-services fraud, a public corruption charge, on Jan. 4.
Ecclesia College President Oren Paris III of Springdale is accused of paying kickbacks to Woods while Woods was a legislator. Woods, in turn, paid Neal in some cases, according to the indictment.
Paris passed the kickback payments through Randell Shelton Jr., a consultant from Alma who was a business partner Paris hired on behalf of the college, according to the indictment. The indictment doesn't name the college but says Paris is the president of a nonprofit operating a college in Springdale. Money in the state's General Improvement Fund -- consisting largely of surplus state funds often used for one-time projects -- was used in this scheme, the indictment says.
Attorneys for Woods, Paris and Shelton have entered innocent pleas on behalf of their clients.
Asked why the bureau needs to hire the Mitchell Williams law firm rather than rely on the bureau's attorneys, including herself, Garrity said Monday that while "we are attorneys ... just like any other specialty, we don't practice in court. We don't go into federal court. We draft legislation, which is completely different than arguing against subpoenas or warrants in court. That's an expertise we don't have in the bureau, and that's what we are looking for."
Asked why the bureau isn't relying on Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office for advice, Garrity said, "We value the working relationship we have with the attorney general's office and their continued representation of the Bureau in various legal matters.
"In this case, due to the possible sensitive nature of the representation as well as the type of the inquiries we have received, we chose to pursue hiring outside legal counsel," she said.
Judd Deere, a spokesman for Rutledge, said the attorney general had no comment.
Duke said in a letter dated Friday to Garrity that the Mitchell Williams law firm will represent the bureau "in connection with a federal investigation into certain actions/inactions of non-BLR employees." BLR stands for the Bureau of Legislative Research.
Asked whether the federal investigation is of state lawmakers, Garrity said, "We are not sure yet."
"We've received inquiries from federal entities indicating that they're going to be wanting emails that we consider confidential," she said, adding the emails are "working papers."
The federal entities "could be" seeking information about legislators, Garrity said.
"We just haven't received the actual request yet," she said.
Garrity said, "We have been contacted by a couple of agencies, so I am not sure which one or if both will be issuing subpoenas or warrants for information."
She declined to disclose which federal entities have contacted the bureau.
The Bureau of Legislative Research's employees work for the Legislature. They draft legislation, research topics, attend committee meetings, review state agency rules, codify laws and provide computer services to the House and Senate.
"Unpublished memoranda, working papers and correspondence of the Governor, members of the General Assembly, Supreme Court Justices, Court of Appeals Judges, and the Attorney General" are exempt from public disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
Duke said in her letter to Garrity that she "will have the primary responsibility" of Mitchell Williams' representation of the bureau.
Duke said she anticipates that the Mitchell Williams law firm's attorneys Anton Janik Jr., Christopher Plumlee and Wendy Johnson also "are likely to be principally involved, although, of course, we reserve the right to change or add personnel as may be necessary."
The hourly rates for these attorneys, "all of whom are partners," will be $295, Duke said.
"We strive to provide services at the lowest practical level consistent with the complexity level of the task being performed," she wrote. "Thus, we may also enlist the assistance of associates and paralegals at lower rates, depending on the task at hand. Due to the fact that this is a federal investigation -- the depth and scope of which remains unknown to those outside of the investigating authorities -- we are unable to provide any estimate of total fees at this time."
Asked about Mitchell Williams' lobbyists, Garrity said, "What they have done is, they do ethics conflicts in their own firm and then they separate out the attorneys from that, so we have been assured that any attorneys working on this [representation of the bureau] will not divulge or share any information to any other members of their firm."
A Section on 06/27/2017