Report on Jim Hood: 'egregious impropriety in hiring private attorneys'

Thanks to Y'all Politics for this news. A new report Beyond Reproach? Fostering Integrity and Public Trust in the Offices of State Attorneys General criticizes the Attorneys General of six states including, not surprisingly, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood. A press release on the report by the American Tort Reform Association describes the problem and offers some of a solution. The Mississippi section of the report is not pretty for Hood.

Mississippi has a long and troubling history of unseemly relationships between the office of the attorney general and plaintiffs’ attorneys. Attorney General Jim Hood was elected in 2003 and has funneled substantial work to his plaintiff lawyer campaign contributors ever since. His tenure as attorney general represents one of the most egregious examples of the impropriety that can be found in the process of states hiring private attorneys.

• Over a five year period following his election in 2003, Attorney General Hood retained at least 27 outside law firms to file at least 20 lawsuits on behalf of the State of Mississippi. These law firms and their attorneys contributed $543,000 to Hood’s campaigns.

• Since 2005 Attorney General Hood has received $149,056 in campaign contributions from Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, and the State of Mississippi has contracted with this firm on five lawsuits. Between February 14 - 17 of 2006, Bernstein Litowitz attorneys contributed $25,000 to Hood’s campaign, and on February 21, 2006, Hood selected the firm to represent the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement Fund in a securities class action claim against Delphi Corp. The lawsuit settled for $333.4 million, paying $40.5 million in legal fees.

• The firm Wolf Popper contributed $15,000 to Hood’s campaign on February 22, 2006, and the state of Mississippi contracted with this firm on a lawsuit against Sonus on March 23, 2006. Sonus settled for $9.5 million, including legal fees estimated at $1.5 million.

Legislation similar to the Private Attorney Retention Act has been introduced in Mississippi but has not passed. Even after Dickie Scruggs, the state’s handpicked lawyer, went to jail for bribing a judge, Attorney General Hood has resisted such ethics reforms. Stronger state laws are needed to ensure that private attorneys hired to represent the state are selected through an open and competitive bidding process.

There is plenty more in the report on this problem and Mississippi.

We've been watching this here for a while. Our posts on his relationship with Bernstein Litowitz including a trip to Ireland and "pay to play" tactics, and cartoons on what this does to confidence in the legal system and Robin Hood, and the many, many, many, many calls for more ethics and sunshine in the Office of Attorney General.