State attorneys general have too often been dispiritingly cozy with left-wing trial lawyers who operate like an arm of the Democratic Party, garnering lucrative payouts from which they donate a substantial amount to Democratic candidates and ballot measures. For meritless cases, that trend too often amounts to a shakedown of a state’s employers. Now two new attorneys general, Brenna Bird in Iowa and Kris Kobach in Kansas, have not wasted time in changing their respective states’ course. They have fired Morgan & Morgan, which describes itself as “America’s Largest Injury Law Firm” and had contracted with the states on a contingency fee basis.
This is a major victory against the shady trial lawyer pipeline. Over a recent four-year period ending in 2020, 99% of over $4 million in donations recorded by the FEC from Morgan & Morgan and its employees went to Democrats and their allies. The firm’s founder, John Morgan, alone has spent millions of dollars in support of Democratic minimum wage and marijuana ballot measures in Florida. He also flew Frank Biden to his brother’s inauguration.
In explaining their decisions, Bird noted that Iowa’s relationship with Morgan & Morgan “primarily benefit[ed] out of state trial lawyers.” Kobach for his part noted the firm’s substandard performance, which included delays and subcontracting its work. The arrangement had never placed the state’s interest as paramount—not that that mattered much to Democratic politicians who benefited from the firm’s donations, as did their dark-money allies.
Montana’s attorney general, Austin Knudsen, terminated his state’s relationship to Motley Rice LLC, a similar cash cow for Democrats, in 2021. Iowa and Kansas have now made it a trend to reform how their legal officers conduct the states’ business. Other states with trial lawyer contracts still in place include Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
Kudos to Brenna Bird and Kris Kobach for their decisions. Hopefully, other states will follow their example. Trial lawyers who are still using the power of the government to enrich themselves in these parasitic state contracts are undermining, not protecting, the rule of law.