Trial lawyers profitable investment in AG races

James Copeland:
America's plaintiffs' bar, which we at the Manhattan Institute have dubbed Trial Lawyers, Inc., has found a new cash cow in state-sponsored litigation parceled out by the nation's state attorneys general.
Most state AGs are dependent on campaign cash -- 43 of the 50 states elect their attorneys general -- and they have increasingly turned to trial attorneys who profit handsomely by suing for the states.
The funder list for the Democratic Attorneys General Association, which has spent more than $6 million in each of the last two election cycles, reads like a who's who for Trial Lawyers, Inc.
The biggest donors to DAGA have included securities class-action firms Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann and Labaton Sucharow & Rudoff, as well as, in the 2008 election cycle, the former law firms of Mississippians Dickie Scruggs and Joey Langston, who funneled hundreds of thousands to help re-elect their state's attorney general, Jim Hood, before the two private attorneys were disbarred and imprisoned on federal charges stemming from an attempt to bribe a judge.
Despite the oversize role played by DAGA, the relationship between state AGs and the trial bar is hardly a partisan affair and includes numerous Republican state AGs. For example, Utah's Mark Shurtleff entered into a contract with the Steele & Biggs firm to sue Eli Lilly over its drug Zyprexa after the firm had given $58,000 to his campaign; the firm netted $4 million representing the state in that litigation.
Another Republican, former Alabama Attorney General Troy King, hired the Beasley Allen firm to sue 73 pharmaceutical companies over Medicaid reimbursements; the firm netted millions in state lawsuits after pumping $760,000 into political action committees that spent $240,000 to support King's campaign.
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There is more.

I find it interesting that liberal papers like the NY Times have a problem with elected judges taking campaign contributions from lawyers, but show little concern about the bargain struct by the trial lawyers and the AGs.  I thought the purpose of having an AG staff is to have them try the cases on behalf of the state.

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