The Next Attorney General

Marc Abrams

With John Kroger’s announcement that he will not seek a second term as Attorney General, the voters of Oregon will be making a choice next year on their third different AG is as many terms. The job of Attorney General requires all manner of skills ― legal, managerial, and interpersonal ― that will not likely show up in any one candidate in perfect proportions. However, as candidates present themselves, here are some of the things we ought to be looking for:

Managerial experience.

First and foremost, the Attorney General is the CEO of a large organization. With approximately 300 lawyers, DOJ is the largest law shop in the state (Stoel Rives is larger overall, as is Perkins Coie, but neither has that number in Oregon). In addition, DOJ runs the Division of Child Support, which is larger than the combined law divisions, and which oversees whatever enforcement is needed for the 450,000 parents subject to support orders in Oregon. The budget hovers around three hundred million dollars, and there are over 1000 employees.

Oregon’s best interests are served by having an attorney general who brings experience in running complex organizations ― whether public or private ― to the position.

Broad civil law experience.

Many people refer to the AG as Oregon’s “Top Cop.” This is a misleading and even possibly harmful catch phrase. Only a small percentage of what is done at DOJ is criminal law, most of which is the province of the 36 district attorneys around the state. Of the five law divisions, only the smallest ― Criminal Justice ―engages full-time in direct law enforcement activities. CJ has only about a dozen lawyers. In addition, much of the work of our forty lawyers in the Appellate Division is the defense of convictions on appeal, some criminal work is done in our “plaintiff’s arm,” the Civil Enforcement Division, and other attacks on criminal convictions are done in the Trial Division. That having been said, most of our lawyers are engaged in representing the needs of the State just as a private firm would represent the needs of a large company. There are contracts to be drawn up, personnel matters to be dealt with, lawsuits to defend, appeals to be taken. And while some of that work will be for the Department of Corrections, the State Police, or DPSST, that is also not criminal law work.

There is nothing inherently wrong in a criminal law background. But it is not the best background for overseeing DOJ.

Political Acumen.

The most obvious difference between DOJ and a large private law firm is that DOJ, of course, is that DOJ is public. A law firm’s governance is entirely within itself, responsive to its own needs and those of clients it gets to select. DOJ responds not only to its primary client, the state government, but also to Oregon’s citizens, which it also directs indirectly and sometimes directly, and to a legislature that funds the Department. Political skills can be picked up in a lot of different contexts, but someone who has worked around the Oregon Legislature at some point, whether as a member or as staff, has a significant advantage over someone who has to learn that terrain on the fly.

In addition, DOJ is a unionized environment. SEIU represents the non-attorney workforce, and we lawyers are associated with AFSCME as Local 1085, the Oregon Association of Justice Attorneys. The next Attorney General will need to oversee two rounds of collective bargaining with both AFSCME and SEIU in his or her first term. Recruitment, retention and morale are serious issues in the Department that will need to be addressed by the next AG, hopefully in a collaborative manner.

“DOJ DNA”

Or the willingness to acquire it… For those of us within the Department, a commitment to the goal of public service, and an understanding that we who work at DOJ chose this career, is very important. David Frohnmayer and Hardy Myers in particular are remembered for their pride in running the agency and for their ability to instill that pride and a sense of mission in the Department’s attorneys and staff. In a world in which public employees can barely turn on the radio without their work, their work ethic, and their value to society being questioned by talk show hosts who likely never have even set foot in the Department, a commitment to the work and the people of DOJ would be welcome and important.

As candidates put themselves forward, these are some of the benchmarks they might be measured against. I’d be interested in hearing others.

(NOTE: I am president of AFSCME 1085, the Oregon Association of Justice Attorneys, but speak only for myself in this post.)

By Marc Abrams Oct. 23, 2011 Posted in open discussion.