South Carolina lawmakers hire outside lawyers to defend pay raise in court
Both the state House and state Senate have hired outside lawyers to fight a lawsuit filed by a state senator to stop the pay raise approved for lawmakers, a move not uncommon during litigation.
The Senate is working with lawyers Sara Parrish and Tracey Green from Burr & Forman, which has offices in nine states. The House is working with Mark Moore, Michael Parente and Andrew Mathias for Maynard Nexsen, which has offices in 16 states.
Moore and Mathias are shareholders in the firm. Parente is an associate. Partners are being paid at $450 an hour and associates are being paid at $325 an hour, according to the speaker’s office.
Both the House Speaker’s office and the Senate clerk’s office said working with outside counsel is a regular practice when it comes to litigation.
The speaker’s office did not have an estimate of how much the total cost would be, but it doesn’t expect much work to be needed compared to other cases.
Both lawyers from Burr & Forman have experience working in the General Assembly and understand the constitutional questions, Senate Clerk Jeffrey Gossett said.
Gossett also expected the total cost should not be a lot because responses to the case are due back next week to the state Supreme Court, which is considering the case. The Senate will be paying $375 an hour.
But both chambers routinely hire outside counsel to defend actions by the legislature and the taxpayer money comes out of their respective chamber budgets.
Treasurer Curtis Loftis, who was named as a respondent in the case because his office issues checks to lawmakers also has hired an outside attorney for the case. The treasurer’s office said it doesn’t have a position on the merits of case, but would still need to file paperwork to be removed from the lawsuit.
The outside lawyers will be tasked with defending a $1,500 a month increase for in-district expenses for the state’s 170 lawmakers that was included in the state budget. State Sen. Wes Climer, R-York, along with Carol Herring, a retired teacher who is a member of the SC Federation of Republican Women, filed a suit to stop the pay raise when the new budget goes into effect on July 1.
They argue a pay raise should not go into effect until a new General Assembly is seated after the next election.
So far about 40 lawmakers have turned down the raise.
