The Virginia State Bar, the body that regulates state attorneys, wants to erase an ethics rule “that for a half-century has prohibited the state’s legislators from being employed alongside lobbyists at the commonwealth’s largest law firms,” reports Michael Shear at the Washington Post. Virginia’s rule is stronger than that of many other states, where lawmakers and lobbyists do work for the same law firm.
But the idea is opposed by some within the General Assembly, such as Del. Clark N. Hogan, R-Charlotte, who say it could create conflicts of interest for lawmakers and lobbyists employed by the same firm, and would accentuate the perception of the legislature as a good old boy’s club “where deals are cut behind closed doors instead of in public committee rooms.”
Writes Shear:
Pressure to eliminate the rule in Virginia was sparked in part by Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, who recently joined the law firm of Hirschler Fleischer P.C., a Richmond-based firm with a small lobbying presence. Without the proposed change, Deeds would be violating state ethics rules.
Deeds, who describes himself as a small-town rural lawyer, said his losing bid for attorney general in 2005 made it nearly impossible to keep his small practice alive. His plans to run for governor in 2009 will require a more stable income, he said. But he said there will be a firewall between himself and the firm’s lobbyists.