Plain Dealer - Saying no to Petro cost us, lawyers say

(Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Saying no to Petro cost us, lawyers say

Columbus- Two prominent Republican lawyers said their law firms lost virtually all of their state legal business after they refused to donate to Attorney General Jim Petro's campaign.

One of the lawyers, Jack Morrison, said Petro personally explained that his firm would be pun ished for donating to Joe Deters, who briefly challenged Petro for the 2002 Republican nomination for attor ney general.

After Deters dropped out of the race and cleared the field for Petro, Mor rison said, he did a fel low lawyer a favor by attending a fund-raiser he hosted in Petro's honor. Morrison said he bought no ticket to the event but did bring one of his law partners to help boost the crowd size.

"I'll never forget it," Morrison told The Plain Dealer.

Petro accompanied him out of the party and said, " 'Jack, you're going to be very unhappy with me next year . . . because I have to be loyal to those that were loyal to me and you supported Joe Deters,' " Morrison said.

"You're going to lose your work, but you'll have a chance to get back on board if you make contributions. But you're going to have to sit out a year."

The second lawyer, Ray Weber of Akron, said his firm lost millions of dollars in university patent work - and lost it to Akron's Roetzel & Andress, a politically wired firm that had to scramble to assemble a patent law department.

No one ever explained to Weber why he lost the work.

No one had to, he said.

"I'm sure we lost the University of Akron and Kent State because we did not pony up with Mr. Petro," Weber said.

For more than two years, critics have periodically accused Petro's campaign aides of heavy- handed fund-raising tactics, but Morrison is the first to accuse Ohio's top law enforcement official of conduct that one expert said - if true - crossed the line.

Washington University law professor Kathleen Clark reviewed Morrison's comments and said, "If Mr. Morrison's allegations are true, then it is deeply troubling that the chief law enforcement officer in the state of Ohio appears to be trading official acts for campaign contributions."

Petro - who is now seeking his party's nomination for governor - vehemently denied telling Morrison that his firm would be punished for backing Deters.

"I've never said anything like that to anybody," Petro said. He does remember attending the fund-raiser but not talking with or meeting Morrison.

He believes they did not meet until last year at President Bush's second inaugural. Morrison said he didn't attend the inaugural.

Petro said he decides which firms will get legal work based on the quality of their services and whether they have the expertise to handle the business.

He did, however, say that politics drove the decision to stop the flow of state legal work to Morrison's and Weber's law firms.

First assistant Michael Grodhaus recommended the changes, Petro said, and argued that the firms' continued employment could taint Petro's reputation for independence and integrity because they have close ties to Alex Arshinkoff, Summit County's powerful GOP chairman.

Morrison is among Summit County's more visible lawyers and GOP leaders.

He is the past president of the Akron Bar Association and sits on the local library board.

He is an elected member of the Ohio Republican Party's State Central Committee, secretary of the Summit County Republican Party and served on the 2004 Bush-Cheney legal team that coordinated litigation for the 2004 election.

Despite his pedigree, both Petro and his campaign chairman, Bob Paduchik, disbelieve Morrison - who is Arshinkoff's personal attorney.

"Anything that a crony of Alex might say is highly suspect," Paduchik said. "Alex has a deep hatred for Jim Petro. I think Alex is behind this effort."

Morrison scoffed.

"I won't lie for anybody," he said, "including Jim Petro."

Arshinkoff initially endorsed Republican Ohio Auditor Betty Montgomery for governor, and backed up his support with $400,000 in donations that had flowed since 2000 from local Republicans such as Morrison to party-endorsed candidates such as Montgomery.

Over the past five years, Morrison has given $62,000 to Republican Party accounts and an additional $10,000 to Montgomery's campaign, records show.

When Montgomery dropped out of the governor's primary on Tuesday, Arshinkoff quickly embraced Petro's remaining competitor, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.

Arshinkoff's detractors say he exerts near-total control over fund raising within the county and demands to sign off on jobs, contracts and appointments - then exacts revenge on those who cross him.

Arshinkoff conceded that he does suggest whom to hire, but denied suggesting to Morrison or anyone else that they falsely accuse Petro of anything.

"If Jack Morrison said it happened, then it happened," Arshinkoff said.

Petro cracked open the doors to Summit County's GOP donors with the help of Roetzel & Andress. The firm has hosted fund- raisers for him and its lawyers gave $53,500 to Petro's campaigns from 2002 to 2004.

Once Petro became attorney general, the firm became one of the leading recipients of state legal contracts, known as special counsel work.

In state fiscal year 2004, Roetzel placed No. 3 in total state legal business, receiving $1.6 million. It had never before placed in the top 10.

Much of the work received by Morrison's firm - Amer Cunningham - also went to Roetzel after Petro became attorney general in 2003.

Amer Cunningham saw its special counsel work drop from $356,827 in state fiscal year 2003 to $29,368 last year, state records show.

Patent lawyer Weber believes Petro punished his firm after it refused a series of fund-raising requests from Petro's campaign.

After Petro's election, Weber lost contracts to handle the University of Akron's polymer work and patents for Kent State University's nationally acclaimed Liquid Crystal Institute. The decision to ship Roetzel the work came before Roetzel even had a patent law department, Weber said.

Weber said he learned the changes were coming when Roetzel began recruiting his colleagues and "telling associates that as soon as Jim Petro is elected, we're going to have all of the University of Akron's work."

Weber is with Renner Kenner Greive Bobak Taylor & Weber, a firm that specializes in patent and other types of intellectual property law.

Patent work is considered a highly specialized area of the law, and Weber is a nationally recognized expert in his field. Listed in "Best Lawyers in America" for 12 years, he has engineering and law degrees from the University of Akron and he said he viewed the patent work as a way to help his alma mater - even though the state pays less than most private-sector clients.

"One of a university's most valuable assets is its intellectual property and we learned it was about to be placed in the hands of a firm that didn't even have a patent law department. I was absolutely shocked - more as a taxpayer than anything," he said.

Roetzel got the University of Akron work. The KSU contracts went to three other firms.

In-house lawyers employed by both universities described Web er's work as "excellent" and made it clear that the attorney general, not university officials, decides which lawyers will represent public colleges.

They also said they are satisfied with the work being performed by successor firms but referred other questions about the contracts to Petro's office.

Days before Petro said his office intentionally shut out Morrison and Weber because of their ties to Arshinkoff, his spokeswoman, Kim Norris, offered a different explanation for why Weber's losses were Roetzel's gains.

"The IP [intellectual property] lawyers who were doing the work went to Roetzel and we then used Roetzel," she said. "It was an absolutely seamless transition."

Records and interviews, however, showed the Weber firm lost just one lawyer to Roetzel, Dan Schlue, a younger associate who remained at Roetzel for about two years.

Schlue confirmed that he joined the Roetzel firm to help start a new patent department and confirmed that he was the only Weber firm lawyer to make the move.

Norris later amended her comments and said Roetzel hired Schlue from the Weber firm, then hired a second, more senior, patent lawyer, George Moxon, from Brouse McDowell.

"The point is," she said, Roetzel "was ready to handle the work."

On Sept. 27, 2002 - about six weeks before Petro's election as attorney general - Roetzel officials asked the Weber firm to merge with it, Weber said.

Roetzel President Tim Ochsenhirt "met with me and the principals of our firm telling us that when Petro got elected, they were going to get all of the work and wanted to merge with our firm," Weber said.

One of his partners, Ed Greive, confirmed the meeting's date and subject matter.

Petro said there were no discussions about which firms would get the work until after his election and denied that Roetzel knew in advance that it would take over the universities' business.

Petro said he isn't troubled to learn that the firm did not have a patent law department when he took office because contracts signed by his predecessor did not expire until June 30 and Grodhaus assured him that the firm "had patent law capability."

Ochsenhirt did not return calls seeking comment.

Weber's firm declined the offer to merge, then lost virtually all of its state business.

From fiscal year 1999 to 2003, state records show the firm received $3.7 million in state legal work.

Petro took office in January 2003 and the following year, Weber's state business dropped to $300.

The Roetzel firm did well during Montgomery's time as attorney general, but its annual state business more than tripled under Petro.

In fiscal 2004, Petro's office shipped $1.6 million in business to the firm and the next year it received $1.68 million in state le gal business.

As evidence that Montgomery kowtowed to Arshinkoff, Petro's supporters say that the Weber firm landed much of the university work when Montgomery was attorney general.

Montgomery spokesman Mark Weaver denied that Arshinkoff dictated who received the work but said Montgomery did seek advice from clients and community leaders, including Arshinkoff, before assigning the work.

Weber is less active in GOP politics than Morrison.

State records show Montgomery's campaigns collected two $150 donations from Weber - one in 1998, the other in 1999.

"Don't get me wrong," he said, "I do contribute to the Republican Party, but that is by choice."

Over the past five years, he has given more than $21,000 to Summit County Republican Party accounts.

Morrison and Weber are the latest to publicly question Petro's fund-raising tactics.

In October 2003, Montgomery told reporters that a fund-raiser employed by Petro at the time had been threatening contributors with the loss of state business unless they raised or donated acceptable amounts to his campaign.

At the time, Petro suggested that Montgomery made the accusation because she trailed him in party endorsements and campaign donations.

He said he has never spoken with her about her allegations.

In December 2005, a Columbus attorney said in a sworn statement that another Petro fund-raiser told him he could get legal work but he would have to contribute to Petro's campaign for governor.

Attorney Kevin O'Brien, who is a Democrat, signed an affidavit alleging that he met Petro fund- raiser Amy Gravengaard in a bar and that she "suggested levels of donations and fund raising" if he was interested in becoming a special counsel.

Petro adviser Paduchik questioned O'Brien's truthfulness, noting that a judge had sanctioned him in 1999 and accused him of being "disingenuous."

"Anybody who would lie to a judge could easily lie in an affidavit," he said.

An appeals court later overturned the ruling, which is part of O'Brien's protracted divorce and child custody case.