From LegalNewsLine:

New York’s Eliot Spitzer made may have made the practice fashionable, but West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw has a lengthy and enduring pattern of hiring outside counsel and appointing special assistants to help bring sizable financial settlements to the state coffers.

The practice, once all the rage among attorneys general across the country, is now under scrutiny by legal reform groups, state legislators and business organizations. McGraw is chief among those drawing criticism.

“McGraw is probably one of, if not the most, aggressive state attorneys general in this regard,” said Amber Taylor, a Washington-based lawyer who has written articles about the need for reform.

Spitzer earned acclaim and criticism for his high-profile lawsuits, which helped vault him to the New York governor’s mansion. McGraw’s track record — one many of his critics say he continues to build with infuriating regularity — is far more extensive and enduring, if not as flashy.

Also, the attorney general regularly teams with lawyers who are also his faithful campaign contributors. These appointments, most often made without an open and public process, have helped earn outside legal firms huge sums of money in partnership with the powerful office of Attorney General.

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