Former Virginia attorney general Herring joins Akin Gump law firm

(Reuters) – Former Virginia legal professional normal Mark Herring and former Virginia deputy solicitor normal Martine Cicconi are becoming a member of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to steer and develop its state attorneys normal apply, the regulation agency mentioned Monday.

Herring, a Democrat, served two phrases as Virginia’s legal professional normal from 2014 till January of this 12 months. Because the state’s third-highest elected official, he led large-scale investigations involving the insurance coverage, monetary companies, prescribed drugs and expertise industries, the agency mentioned.

Herring was defeated in his bid for a 3rd time period in 2021 by the state’s present legal professional normal, Republican Jason Miyares.

Cicconi, who labored at Akin Gump earlier in her profession, served underneath Herring because the state’s deputy solicitor normal. She most lately served as senior counsel within the White Home counsel’s workplace underneath President Joe Biden, the place she labored on congressional investigations.

The pair are becoming a member of Washington, D.C.-headquartered Akin Gump as companions at a time when state attorneys normal are taking an more and more lively function in scrutinizing company exercise, usually partnering with different states and federal businesses on investigations.

“Should you have a look at the traits in investigations and litigation, in addition to the variety of public coverage points that AGs are concerned in, there’s much more urge for food for motion,” Herring mentioned.

State attorneys normal have lately signed onto main antitrust lawsuits and struck important settlements on points together with the surroundings, shopper safety and the opioid epidemic.

Herring was lively in pursing progressive causes as Virginia’s state legal professional normal, refusing to defend the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, which was later dominated unconstitutional, and difficult a number of Trump administration insurance policies in courtroom.

He apologized in 2019 after revealing that he wore blackface at a university celebration in 1980. The admission got here days after an offensive photograph of then-Virginia governor Ralph Northam’s medical faculty yearbook surfaced.

Earlier than serving with Herring in Virginia, Cicconi was affiliate counsel on the Obama White Home and legal professional advisor on the U.S. Justice Division.

She mentioned there are parallels for legal professionals between congressional and state legal professional normal investigations, together with the necessity to acknowledge potential reputational hurt along with authorized danger.

“Understanding the state AG investigation as its personal animal and highlighting all these diverse aspects of it’s why it is so essential to have the sort of refined apply that we’re constructing right here,” Cicconi mentioned.

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