Welfare agency hires new law firm for 5 times what it would have paid Brad Pigott

Article Source: Daily Journal

JACKSON – The state’s welfare agency is on the cusp of having a new law firm represent it in the state's ongoing effort to claw back millions of allegedly misspent federal dollars that were supposed to help Mississippi’s neediest people.

The Mississippi State Personnel Board on Thursday approved the Mississippi Department of Human Services’ request to contract with Jones Walker law firm to replace former attorney Brad Pigott in bringing a civil suit against 38 defendants, including a nonprofit in Tupelo, to recoup around $24 million.

MDHS Director Bob Anderson told members of the board that the agency needed to contract with a larger law firm to pursue the litigation because of the large number of defendants in the suit and the work required.

“Although Mr. Pigott had done a good job of getting the case started, we just felt like we needed a larger firm to take the matter forward,” Anderson said. “I felt like the proposal and estimate, if you will, that I got from Jones Walker and the team they had proposed to handle this case was the kind of thing that we needed.”

The agreement runs from Aug. 19 to July 31, 2023. Under the terms of the contract, partners at the firm can bill the state $305 an hour, associates and staff attorneys can bill $250 an hour and paralegals can bill $130 an hour. The maximum amount the firm can bill the state is $400,000.

Under the previous contract, Pigott could bill $275 an hour, other attorneys at the firm could bill $170 an hour and legal assistants could charge $85 an hour. The maximum amount the firm could bill was $74,500, meaning there is over a 400% increase in the new maximum amount.

Tupelo-based attorney Jim Waide sent a letter to the personnel board saying the state could ultimately pay a new law firm more in hourly fees than it ever recovers and requested that the board block the Jones Walker firm from replacing Pigott.

aide represents Austin Smith, the nephew of John Davis, the former head of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, in the litigation. Waide argued that an attorney or law firm hired on a contingent fee basis would be a more prudent way to pursue the litigation.

Anderson declined to answer questions from reporters after the meeting, and MDHS through a spokesperson did not respond to further questions from the Daily Journal.

Mississippi State Personnel Board Director Kelly Hardwick told reporters that he and the members of the board considered Waide’s letter, but ultimately determined that the contract met the board’s guidelines for legal contracts.

“That is outside of our purview,” Hardwick said about the letter. “We’re looking for compliance with state law. Those are issues better addressed by the agency.”

Alwyn Luckey, the chairman of the personnel board, encouraged Anderson in the meeting to make sure taxpayer money is “spent wisely” in getting the new law firm up to speed with the specifics of the case.

Gov. Tate Reeves in a statement said the law firm will vigorously pursue the case, wherever it leads.

"They will eagerly cooperate with those criminal investigators whose mission is to get truth and justice for the misconduct that occurred during the previous administration," Reeves said. "And they will leave no stone unturned in the effort to recover misspent TANF funds."

While all parties still technically have to sign off on the contract for it to take effect, inking the deal will largely be a perfunctory act. Both Anderson and Attorney General Lynn Fitch have already signed the contract and Anderson at the meeting said the fees were proposed to him by the law firm itself.