How Much Did DNR Spend on Frivolous Payments to Fave Blunt Law Firm, Lathrop & Gage?

On Tuesday afternoon, a judge rebuked the Blunt Administration's Department of Natural Resources, stopping the department and its attorneys from intervening in the ongoing case regarding the collapse of the Taum Sauk reservoir in late 2005.  The court ruled that Attorney General Jay Nixon properly represents the state of Missouri in the matter, despite the Department's earlier hiring of Lathrop & Gage to intervene on the state's behalf in the case.  

So just how much of the state's money did the Department of Natural Resources spend to give what amounted to a no-bid contract to Lathtrop & Gage --a firm that hired first-sister Amy Blunt just a couple months prior to its retention by the DNR?

The Department of Natural Resources will not be allowed to intervene in a lawsuit filed over the Taum Sauk reservoir collapse filed by Missouri's attorney general, a Reynolds County judge said Tuesday. ...

DNR filed a motion to intervene in the case in January. The agency's position was that it, and not the attorney general, had the legal authority to resolve the matter because it related to clean water issues and property damage to a state park, said the department's deputy director, Kurt Schaefer.

Yesterday's ruling effectively serves as a judicial determination that Missouri's Department of Natural Resources engaged in an act of wasteful frivolity by paying state dollars to a law firm to work on a case in which its help was not warranted.  And the public has, at this moment, no idea of just how much money was shuffled from Missouri to Lathrop & Gage by virtue of the relationship.

Why would the current leadership Missouri government go out of its way to figure a strained way to allow Lathrop & Gage to get involved?  In addition to the overt political calculus that had them seeking to keep Attorney General Jay Nixon from the limelight in this case, they also had significant political and parochial reasons for pushing no-bid business to Lathrop & Gage.

Consider that in August 2006, Lathrop & Gage made a high-profile hire:

Amy Blunt, one of the best-connected Republicans in Missouri, has joined the government relations department of Lathrop & Gage, a large Kansas City law firm.

Blunt is the daughter of U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, the majority whip in the House of Representatives, and the sister of Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt. ...

Blunt will work closely with Mark "Thor" Hearne II, a former legal adviser to Matt Blunt's gubernatorial campaign.

Lathrop & Gage and Hearne, of course, are key players in the vast scheme, recently unravelled, that had national Republicans using false claims of "voter fraud" to push laws intended to assist GOP candidates.  Lathrop & Gage attorneys have also played a critical advisory role in the political schemes and criminal defense of Matt Blunt and his operation.  

And in October 2006, just about two months after Amy Blunt's hiring at Lathrop & Gage, Blunt's shills at the Department of Natural Resources retained the Kansas City-based firm to represent them in the Taum Sauk case, apparently with a very broad --and presumably costly-- mandate to do all sorts of legal work:

The DNR hired Kansas City-based firm Lathrop & Gage on Wednesday evening to work on the Taum Sauk case, said Deputy Director Kurt Schaefer.

Lathrop & Gage attorneys William Beck and Jean Paul Bradshaw will help the DNR determine the total financial cost of damages from the collapse. Such estimations are extremely complicated and will factor in what kind of jury award could be given in a trial, Schaefer said.

Childers said the firm could help with other aspects of the case in coming months and could even defend DNR if the case goes to trial.

"If you engage someone, they're available for any service you need," Childers said.

Nothing like keeping things in the family.  

In the end, though the facts may seem somewhat complex, the underlying elements are quite simple: Blunt's cronies hired a law firm --a firm which employs his sister and with which he has tight political ties-- using state money to do work that we now know there was no legal reason to have done.  Not only is this wasteful, it's another example of governmental self-dealing on Matt Blunt's watch.

We'll never get back the money that the state has already paid to Lathrop & Gage for unnecessary legal bills.  At the very least, we should get to find out how much we've been taken for.