Attorneys general and their staffs are not exempt from the rules and codes that govern professional conduct for lawyers. Because attorneys general have varied responsibilities that are defined by their constitutions, statutes and the common law, it is often difficult to define the ethical duties of attorney general offices. This is especially true in light of their dual capacities as representatives of the public interest, while simultaneously defending various organs of state government. What are the ethical duties of a state attorney general when these roles conflict?

For over fifteen years, James E. Tierney has conducted approved continuing education sessions on ethics for state attorneys general and their staffs at annual meetings of the National Association of Attorneys General. He has also taught courses on state attorneys general ethics and responsibilities in his capacity as a Lecturer-in-Law at both Harvard and Columbia Law Schools and has made presentations before advocacy groups, businesses and private law firms.

StateAG.org continues the work of the National State Attorneys General Program by making available teaching materials on attorney general ethics. The materials presented on the National State Attorneys General Program’s archived website and StateAG.org are for educational purposes only and cannot substitute for specific state-approved CLE programs.

Featured Resource

2022 NAAG Attorney General Symposium

Are the duties of a state attorney general always consistent with the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility?

“While the duties of an OAG and the Model Rules generally work in tandem, there can often be friction that arises most often in the definition of ‘client,’ and herein lies today’s discussion.”

This video from the 2022 NAAG Symposium contains a shortened version of the prepared remarks as well as a highly interactive role playing exercise where all participants in the hypothetical are former state attorneys general with decades of practice experience.

Additional Video Resources

The Modern State Attorney General: Power, Influence, and Ethics

This video captures a January 2016 discussion of the legal and ethical issues raised in a 2014 series of articles in the New York Times by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Eric Lipton on the close ties between attorneys general and industry interests. With Lipton on the panel is James Tierney, former attorney general of Maine and current Director of the Attorney General Clinic and Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School, and Terry Goddard, former attorney general of Arizona and current Lecturer in Law at Arizona State Law School. The panel was moderated by Stanford Law Professor Nora Engstrom.

Attorneys General: Lawyering for Whom?

Co-hosted by Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (CAPI), the Columbia Society of Law and Ethics and the Columbia Law School Social Justice Initiatives

On April 9, 2015, a discussion entitled "Attorneys General - Lawyering for Who?" was moderated by James Tierney, then the Director of the National State Attorneys General program at Columbia Law School, and former New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvie and former Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler.

Elected statewide in forty-three states, attorneys general are independent state constitutional officers vested with extraordinary prosecutorial discretion. The decisions of a single state attorney general often reverberate nationally and impact citizens across state lines.

As a consequence of their wide-ranging impact, state attorneys general have not been immune to the onslaught of special-interest lobbying.  Media outlets, such as the New York Times, have called into question the independence of attorneys general in the face of concerted and sustained lobbying efforts by corporations and trial lawyers.  Furthermore, in a post-Citizen United world, large campaign contributions from known and unknown donors have overwhelmed the election coffers of many state attorneys general, thus further eroding the perception of independence.

In light of these realities, what are the ethical duties and considerations for today's state attorneys general?  Does the need of elected prosecutors to raise campaign funds affect their independence?  Does the lobbying of state attorneys general create undue influence?  And are regulatory changes needed to ensure that state attorneys general continue to faithfully represent the communities they serve?