State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s workplace consulted with former lawyer normal candidate and longtime labor lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan in 2023 because the Methuen Democrat pursued an preliminary audit of the Legislature, in response to public data obtained by the Herald.
The State Auditor’s Workplace didn’t enter into a proper contract with Liss-Riordan and her agency, Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C., however as a substitute sought “legal advice and assistance” in connection to DiZoglio’s audit of the Home and Senate that was launched in October, the data present.
The Workplace of the State Auditor acknowledged the correspondence in an in depth record of data they withheld from public launch beneath the declare of attorney-client privilege.
The withheld data included a number of e mail threads from July 2023 between Liss-Riordan, labor lawyer Matthew Carrieri, and DiZoglio’s high deputies, together with Normal Counsel Michael Leung-Tat, Government Deputy Auditor Steve Lisauskas, and Senior Director Lauren Donoghue.
In a letter responding to a Herald data request, Leung-Tat stated the connection between the State’s Auditor’s Workplace and Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C., “was and continues to be prospective in nature and no formal contractual relationship exists.”
“However, attorney-client privilege applies not just to existing clients but also to prospective clients with whom a formal attorney-client relationship is never established,” Leung-Tat stated.
In a press release despatched Tuesday, Leung-Tat didn’t disclose the precise authorized recommendation Liss-Riordan and her agency supplied however stated the State Auditor’s Workplace has not “engaged” with them since and no prices have been incurred by taxpayers.
“The OSA prospectively engaged with Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C. in 2023, seeking legal advice regarding our then-ongoing efforts to audit the Legislature (the audit was issued in October 2024) and our authority to audit the Legislature under G.L. c. 11, s. 12 (prior to its amendment via the passage of ballot question one in November 2024),” Leung-Tat stated.
Liss-Riordan declined to remark, citing attorney-client privilege.
The disclosure that DiZoglio’s staff briefly turned to an out of doors lawyer because it tried to probe the inner-workings of the Legislature comes because the Home and Senate have additionally used non-public legal professionals amid calls from DiZoglio for authorized motion to drive compliance with a renewed audit.
Home Speaker Ron Mariano’s Workplace stated the department employed CEK Boston as outdoors counsel on Jan. 9, or simply days after the legislative audit legislation voters authorized in November took impact.
A Mariano spokesperson stated it’s “routine” for state companies to retain outdoors counsel when confronted with “novel questions of law.”
Personal attorneys, the spokesperson stated, will complement in-house legal professionals “in order to ensure that House personnel can remain focused on the legislative session, and on protecting the commonwealth from the most severe impacts of federal policy decisions.”
“The House will not be distracted from its important work by the auditor’s pursuit of a political audit,” the spokesperson stated in a press release to the Herald.
The spokesperson didn’t say how a lot the Home is paying CEK Boston, and public spending data don’t present any funds to the agency by the Home in 2025. A request for litigation providers issued by the Home additionally doesn’t define potential prices.
Sen. William Brownsberger, who sits on a Senate subcommittee tasked with responding to DiZoglio’s audit try, stated the Senate works with Legal professional Jennifer Miller of Hemenway & Barnes on a “regular basis” and has not retained a special lawyer in response to the legislative audit.
“We always use outside counsel,” the Belmont Democrat instructed reporters as he left a tense assembly final month between senators and employees from the State Auditor’s Workplace.
The Senate has shelled out not less than $10,400 to Hemenway & Barnes since October 2024, in response to public spending data. That’s on high of one other $13,280 the chamber paid to the agency between October 2023 and July 2024, data present.
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance spokesman Paul Craney, whose group backs DiZoglio’s audit efforts, stated it is not uncommon for politicians to hunt “general advice from people all over the place,” together with legal professionals.
However he cautioned that DiZoglio’s workplace turning to Liss-Riordan is completely different from the Legislature’s use of personal counsel as a result of Liss-Riordan was not paid for her recommendation.
“They should never be viewed the same because taxpayers aren’t funding that,” he stated. “With Jennifer Miller and (CEK Boston), they’re gonna have a scope of work. They’re gonna have to track their hours. They’re gonna have to comply with Massachusetts laws … There’s a whole process when you retain a lawyer, but if you just get friendly legal advice from a lawyer that’s your friend, that’s completely separate.”
Leung-Tat, the final counsel for the Auditor’s Workplace, didn’t say why officers turned to Liss-Riordan and her agency for recommendation.
The labor lawyer misplaced to Legal professional Normal Andrea Campbell within the September 2022 Democratic major for the highest legislation enforcement submit in Massachusetts. Liss-Riordan pulled in 34% of the vote in comparison with Campbell’s 50%, in response to state knowledge.
Liss-Riordan was additionally concerned in an unsuccessful effort final 12 months to toss President Donald Trump from the Massachusetts poll in the course of the presidential election.
DiZoglio’s first try at auditing the Legislature centered on the Home and Senate’s funds, how lawmakers guarantee an “equitable mode of making laws,” how payments are thought-about, and the applying of inside insurance policies and procedures, amongst different issues.
However DiZoglio bumped into resistance from legislators, who argued the State Auditor’s Workplace had no authority to probe the inner-workings of the Legislature and any try to take action violated separation of energy ideas within the state structure.
The primary audit, which DiZoglio’s workplace began laying the groundwork for shortly after she took workplace in January 2023, was additionally carried out earlier than voters authorized the legislative audit poll query championed by the Methuen Democrat.
Within the months because the poll query handed with practically 72% of the vote, DiZoglio has ramped up public assaults on lawmakers who’re both refusing to take part in her second try to analyze the 2 chambers.
She has additionally tried to publicly stress Campbell to greenlight a lawsuit in opposition to the Legislature to drive them to take part within the probe.
Outdoors teams just like the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance have stated they too are able to pursue litigation in an try to persuade a choose to order the Legislature to participate in an investigation into their inside proceedings.
Craney stated the lawsuit from the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, Act on Mass, and the Pioneer Institute is in a “holding pattern” as advocates wait to see what Campbell does in response to DiZoglio’s name for litigation.
“As far as that potential lawsuit goes, everything is ready to go,” he stated. “I am hopeful in the next few weeks, it could be even a few days, we’ll have more to say on that.”
