Flowers Case Shows How AGs Are Stepping Into the Spotlight
Troutman Pepper Partner Ashley Taylor was quoted in a September 13, 2020 Law360 article titled, “ Flowers Case Shows How AGs Are Stepping Into the Spotlight.”
But when Ashley Taylor served as a deputy attorney general for Virginia from 1998 to 2001, prosecutions accounted for little of the office's case load.
"When I was in the office, and I don't think my experience was unusual, maybe 5% of criminal cases required the Attorney General's Office's attention. Most were handled by local prosecutors," said Taylor, who is now a partner at Troutman Pepper and chair of the American Bar Association's Subcommittee on State Attorneys General.
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The choice to step in may also reflect changes in who is running for attorney general, Taylor says. The office used to be a role attorneys took on toward the end of their careers, he said. Now, it's viewed as a stepping stone for people with political aspirations.
"People attracted to the office are people that are, at some level, politicians," he said. "I don't say that in a pejorative sense. It's just attracting a different type of lawyer. The calculation is different."
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Taylor says attorneys general are taking notice, and their willingness to take on such cases "reflects the impact of what we've all been witnessing."
"You see [Minnesota Attorney General] Keith Ellison using the office in a very different way than his predecessor, Lori Swanson," he said. "There's tremendous flexibility in an attorney general's office. You have the discretion to take cases."
He also notes office holders have grown more diverse in recent years. When he worked as a deputy attorney general in Virginia, there was only one Black attorney general in the country. Now, there are six.
"I didn't have that when I was in the office 20 years ago," he said. "When you bring different people in as office holders, you get different perspectives."