Tom Dudchik over at Capitol Report discovered an ongoing effort on Facebook to recruit attorney Ross Garber to run for Attorney General.
Garber is a Republican and his name was one of the first mentioned to me when current Democratic Attorney General Richard Blumenthal in January announced plans to, after 20 years in office, run for U.S. Senate.
I’ve found Garber to be an easy guy to deal with and he has a sense of humor. But I’ve also wondered whether voters would want to replace the popular Blumenthal – who has this “defender of the people” reputation – with a candidate who:
1. Represented former Connecticut Republican Gov. John Rowland during his pre-impeachment hearings.
2. Represented failed insurance giant AIG last year when the Connecticut legislature’s Banks Committee and Blumenthal subpoened Fairfield County executives who had received much-reviled bonuses.
3. Represented Republican South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford late last year when that state’s legislature was weighing impeaching the chief executive.
In an e-mail I asked Garber how he might handle any criticism about his clients that would likely be lobbed his way were he ever to run for Attorney General. Here’s what he had to say:
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Fair question.
First, I represented the Office of the Governor, not John Rowland personally. It was a challenging engagement with interesting Constitutional issues. I was honored to be able to do it. (By the way, Dick Blumenthal also represents the Office of the Governor.).
I’m also lucky enough to be engaged to do other challenging cases for all sorts of clients, some of whom are high profile, most of whom aren’t. I hope I’m engaged because clients in difficult cases know I work hard and do a good job and am dedicated.
I have handled many cases in which I work cooperatively with the government, including the Attorney General’s Office. I’ve also done cases cooperatively with the Department of Justice and other regulators. In just the past few months I was successful in recovering hundreds of thousands of dollars in Medicare payments for the federal government.
I’m also a contributing author of the book “Ethical Standards in the Public Sector”. I was appointed by the Chief Federal District Judge as a member of the panel that oversees attorney ethics. I chair the panel that oversees ethics issues involving state judges. I lecture and write about legal issues.
I’m a member of the board of directors of Connecticut Legal Services and the Connecticut Foundation For Open Government.
This is all by way of saying that I take the practice of law very seriously. I try to do a good job. And yes, I’m fortunate enough that some high profile clients have hired me to do interesting cases of note.
