AG's Hiring of Legal Counsel Opposed

Amanda Bronstad, The National Law Journal, June 26, 2007:

Two national tort reform groups have intervened in an Oklahoma case in an attempt to disqualify plaintiffs lawyers who were hired by the state's attorney general on a contingency-fee basis.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) recently filed an amicus brief in an environmental case brought by Oklahoma Attorney General W.A. Drew Edmondson against about a dozen poultry processing plants. State of Oklahoma v. Tyson Foods Inc., No. 4:05-cv-00329 (N.D. Okla.).
The Chamber and ATRA have been scrutinizing attorneys general for hiring outside counsel on a contingency-fee basis to bring big-ticket litigation against corporations.
In their brief, the chamber and ATRA claim that "permitting the state to 'contract out' its enforcement power to private attorneys can lead to prosecution of government lawsuits on the basis of profitability, not public interest."