Julian Walker
The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
Attorney General Bill Mims and the College of William and Mary seem to be on a collision course over the legality of state Sen. Tommy Norment's role as a legal adviser to the college.
Since July 2008, William and Mary has been paying Norment $160,000 a year for a dual role as part-time teacher and legal counselor. The story was reported Sunday in The Virginian-Pilot.
Norment is a senior member of the General Assembly from James City County and has a key role in funding decisions for the state-supported college. He appears to be the most highly paid among a handful of state lawmakers on the payrolls of state schools.
In defending Norment's pay last week, William and Mary President Taylor Reveley emphasized the senator's value to the school as a legal adviser.
A statement issued Tuesday by David Clementson, a spokesman for Mims, appeared to undermine that defense.
"Attorneys may, and do, work for state agencies in various capacities," the statement said. "However, only attorneys serving under the authority of the Office of the Attorney General can provide formal, legal representation to a state agency in a privileged attorney-client relationship, absent express approval by the General Assembly. State-supported colleges and universities are state agencies for purposes of this statutory limitation."
Clementson declined to elaborate.
In response, William and Mary appeared to dig in its heels.
"William and Mary relies on lawyers in the Attorney General's Office for many purposes, especially for representation in litigation and other formal legal proceedings," college spokesman Brian Whitson said in a statement. "William and Mary has also had inside lawyers of its own for many years. The university regards all advice it has gotten from these lawyers as privileged and will continue to do so. We believe our view of this is well rooted in the law."
Norment issued a brief statement calling Mims' position "entirely consistent with my understanding of my role with the college."
Last week, Norment told The Pilot that before accepting the William and Mary job, he got a written opinion from then-Attorney General Bob McDonnell that it did not constitute an impermissible conflict of interests. He declined to provide a copy of the opinion.
Mims, a former McDonnell deputy, became attorney general when McDonnell resigned to run for governor. McDonnell, Mims and Norment are Republicans. Norment is Senate minority leader and a member of the budget-writing Finance Committee.
Norment's employment contract with William and Mary says nothing about providing legal services. That was an oversight that will be corrected, Reveley told The Pilot last week.
Responding to media accounts, Reveley sent an e-mail to William and Mary faculty and staff Tuesday, defending Norment's hiring.
"The work Senator Norment does as a William and Mary employee is substantive and demanding," Reveley wrote. "His employment here is not a Potemkin village...
"No 'quid pro quo' was involved in Senator Norment's and my conversations about the possibility of his joining William and Mary. The Senator did not offer to do anything for William and Mary in return for employment. Nor did I premise the possibility of his employment here on his doing anything for the university in the future."
It could not be determined Tuesday evening how many, if any, state schools other than William and Mary employ lawyers outside the purview of the Attorney General's Office.
Norment teaches two classes at the college on the legislative process, one in the law school and one in the government department. The job will allow Norment, 63, to qualify for a significantly bigger state pension when he retires.
Pensions are calculated on the basis of an employee's three consecutive highest-paid years of employment. When Norment took the college job, his state salary jumped from the $18,000 he earns as a senator to $178,000.
He also earns tens of thousands more from his job as local commissioner of accounts, a court-appointed position in which he presides over the disposition of estates.
Norment's arrangement with William and Mary drew no criticism from his Democratic counterpart in the Senate. To the contrary, Norment is "one of the five brightest guys" he's served with during 33 years in the Assembly, Majority Leader Richard Saslaw of Fairfax said.
"Quite frankly, I don't see a problem there," Saslaw said, noting he's "never seen Tommy go overboard for William and Mary" in the legislature.
"He's a hell of a spokesman for them and they're lucky to get him."
Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com
Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com
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If you have to figure out how to explain it
If you have to figure out a way to explain it you ought not be doing it!!! I told that to my daughter when she went into high school and started going off on her own. It's served her well ever since...
Why the outcry now? Write a new law.
Every Virginian and General Assembly Member past and present could have demanded that only ONE publically funded job or position be allowed at a time. Why the outcry now? This has been going on for years. If this is an issue write a law, if not, suck it up and move on. There are a lot of jealous posts on this Board.
Doesn't matter if republican or democrat
It is wrong for state senators to be commissioners of account and to then also sneak in a nice high paying salaried job to pad the pension. Further, didn't an earlier article also indicate that he still works for the law firm as "of counsel" and he only gave up "partnership" to comply with McD's opinion that he couldn't ethically be both. Maybe the reason the employment agreement neglects legal is because he knew only the Atty Gen is authorized to provide and hire lawyers for the state, including those in-house lawyers (who are actually appointed by the AG). Does his job with the law firm include providing legal services for a fee with WM as a client? There used to be a joke about some people competing for the most jobs, is this what it's all about--four jobs!
just wonder
If the VP will do this type of investigation into Louise Lucas and the committee position she holds on health care issues, and just how sweetly her votes have benefited her 5 health related business in Portsmouth. Since she is a democrat and not white I guess we will never know.
Hourly wage.
I'm no math-magician, but 2 hours a week for 13 weeks is what, 26? Divide the salary of 160,000 by 26 and it comes out to 6,153 and some change......AN HOUR. For that price, they better be cranking out some geniouses the likes of which we've never seen before. And here I was feeling sympathy for teachers crying they are underpaid, pfffft!
Republican, a brand name you
Republican, a brand name you can trust. First it was the John Ensign affair, then we had the Mark Sanford and his affair, now we have Bob
Mac taking care of his people. All this after 8 years of King George.
Shouldn't be long before the party is obsolete.
What is Tommy Worth?
"He's a hell of a spokesman for them and they're lucky to get him."
$ 25,000,000.00 worth.
That's a good ROI as we say on Wall Street.
Way to go, Tommy!
Tommy Norment must be an undercover Clark Kent to hold down three jobs and still have enough time and energy to represent his constituents and district equally and fairly. In fairness, though, I must admit that he gave up his partnership at a prestigious law firm in order to serve as a state senator. So would it be also fair to say that money is not his motivating factor. And let’s not mention the unselfish sacrifice that he and his family must endure by not having the husband/father figure at home to nurture and care for his most personal admirers. Instead of finding fault with what could be misconstrued as inappropriate and unethical concerns, we should be racing to the ballot box to ensure that more people likeTommy Norment are elected to serve as our representatives.
brian k
You hit the nail on the head w/your last sentence. It's as if the DEMS do no wrong. Yea right!
cover-up
I suggest that the Pilot make a FOIA request for all correspondence between Norment and Reveley because the AG says that those communications are not protected by the attorney-client privilege.
Norment is receiving tax dollars to perform a job that is already provided by the AG. Where's the outrage?
Norment is being paid $160k+ of taxpayer dollars for being an adjunct (part-time) faculty member. Adjunct faculty members get paid $3k per semester for each course taught at W&M. Where's the outrage?
Reveley says that Norment was hired to be a legal advisor, but that role was not written in the employment agreement. These are two lawyers who failed to put a key provision in an employment contract? Where's the outrage?