On September 30, 2016, Governor John Bel Edwards sued Attorney General Jeff Landry to compel him to approve several contracts between the Governor’s office and private legal counsel. In his Petition, the Governor alleged that the Attorney General’s role in approving the Governor’s contracts with private legal counsel is a ministerial duty that the Attorney General improperly refused to perform and requested that the Court order the Attorney General to approve the contracts at issue.

On October 17, 2016, the presiding District Judge denied the Governor’s request and refused to force the Attorney General to approve the Governor’s contracts. The Governor’s executive counsel stated that he will ask the First Circuit Court of Appeal to review the District Judge’s decision.

A prior post (which can be found here) addressed the Attorney General’s refusal to approve a contract between private legal counsel and the State of Louisiana, through the Department of Natural Resources (“LDNR”) in the coastal loss litigation. Interestingly, the Governor’s lawsuit against the Attorney General did not identify this contract as being at issue, which may be because of other deficiencies previously identified by the Attorney General’s office.

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