Maybe the Jones Walker law firm will prove that it’s worth the extra $325,000 it could cost Mississippi for its attorneys to take over the second year of pursuing civil litigation to recapture tens of millions of dollars in misspent welfare funds.
Time will tell whether having an expensive multistate law firm produces more bang for the taxpayers’ buck than the Mississippi solo practitioner who was on the case would have.
Still, it’s ironic for Gov. Tate Reeves to justify the change in counsel on the claim that Jones Walker has “the full-service capabilities to handle the sweeping scale of this case,” when Reeves had Brad Pigott fired because the former federal prosecutor was trying to expand his probe into an area where the governor didn’t want him to go.
Pigott knew there was more money to claw back than the $24 million included in the initial lawsuit he filed. He had his eyes on the $5 million — the largest single dubious diversion of welfare money in the entire scandal — that was used to build a volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi.
The governor’s office, though, had that claim taken out of the lawsuit, and then Reeves got miffed when Pigott still tried to pursue the matter by subpoenaing the communications between those who may have known about the scheme, including the USM Athletic Foundation, on whose board several Reeves supporters sit.
It will also be interesting to see whether Jones Walker, while it is pursuing this “sweeping” case, sweeps into the $1.3 million of welfare money that went to Reeves’ personal trainer and which Reeves, while he was lieutenant governor, might have helped influence.
If the law firm looks seriously into that expenditure and any others in which the governor may be conflicted, then we will agree with Reeves about the change in counsel. It will have been money well-spent.
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