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AG Morrisey approves final outside counsel policy

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has given final approval on a new policy regarding the hiring of outside counsel.

The new policy states that private attorneys must now bid on state legal work, which is supervised by the Attorney General’s Office.

“This policy sends a strong message that West Virginia will be transparent and accountable with respect to the use of outside counsel,” Morrisey said in a news release. “With its implementation, West Virginia joins a number of states pursuing outside counsel reform and sets an example that will garner attention nationwide.”

Morrisey made the announcement Tuesday with the end of a 45-day period for public comment regarding the policy.

During the comment period, the Attorney General’s Office received six formal comment letters that provided suggested improvements and/or clarifications to the policy along with several informal comments expressing support for the overall intent of the policy.

From the comments, Morrisey’s office fine tuned the policy.

One of those changes is that Morrisey’s office will now consider during a competitive bidding process any potential conflicts of interest as well as relevant input from the state entity client.

The pre-bidding process was also revised to require both the re-evaluation of the pre-approved attorney list at least every two years and a written determination explaining the reasons for selecting a pre-approved attorney or firm any time the pre-bid list is utilized.

The new policy also requires Morrisey’s office to post written explanations for hiring outside counsel on the attorney general’s website, except when posting could jeopardize the attorney-client privilege or confidential work product.

In Tuesday’s release, Morrisey said he is pleased with the comments they got and believes the policy is a lot better because of them.

“We believe that our final policy on outside counsel strikes an appropriate balance between the need for transparency and accountability in outside counsel hires and the desire to provide the State and its agencies with top-notch legal services,” stated Morrisey.

A copy of the final Outside Counsel Policy can be viewed at www.wvago.gov/outsidecounsel.cfm.





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