Ann-Marie-Luciano

Welcome to the fifth season of State AG Pulse. In this season we’ll be digging into the weekly state AG news to bring you our insights on the impact of state attorneys general across a broad range of industry sectors.  From technology to healthcare and telecommunications to consumer financial services, state AGs continue to wield extraordinary influence, not only in their own states but also on the national stage. Now onto this week’s episode.

Jerry Kilgore

Great to be with you today. I’m Jerry Kilgore, co-chair of the State Attorney General Group here at Cozen O’Connor. I’m also the former Attorney General in Virginia. And we’re excited today to be here for season five, episode four of our podcast.

I do want to invite our listeners to go and listen to our last episode, which featured Chris Allen and Emily Yu. And they talked about how companies that are selling products that impact our consumers’ health or sell products aimed at minors are likely to under State Attorney General scrutiny. I encourage you to listen to that podcast for new and valuable information for your companies. Today we’re welcoming Chuck Slemp to the State Attorney General Group here at Cozen O’Connor. We’re very excited that he’s agreed to join our group. He was actually an elected official in Virginia serving as Commonwealth’s attorney, which would be the equivalent of district attorney in most states and then he served recently as the chief deputy attorney general for Attorney General Jason Miyares here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Chuck Slemp

I am so excited to join this team and I’m excited for not only working alongside you, Jerry, but the other members of the State AG team. But even more so, I’m thrilled to do podcasts with you. I don’t know if you know this, that I started my career in radio. So it’s only natural to be back in front of the microphone. So thank you for joining… letting me join.

Jerry Kilgore

So I know while you were Chief Deputy, you worked on a lot of issues. You worked on multistates, privacy issues, gaming issues, higher education issues, secondary education issues, and tobacco issues. That’s quite a bit. And you dealt with personnel in the office.

Chuck Slemp

Well, that for sure too.

Jerry Kilgore

Tell us about the key initiatives that you worked on when you were chief deputy in the attorney general’s office.

Chuck Slemp

Well, one thing that I will say about the role as Chief Deputy is that you get to know a little bit about a whole lot. You get to know and be involved in just about every part of the role of the Attorney General, every aspect of the office, whether it’s the front-facing, public-facing, political side of the office, whether it is the minor details of making sure that the lights are on and the elevators are working. And yes, I got stuck in an elevator on a Saturday working on one of those types of issues. Obviously doing things like managing cases, ensuring that attorneys are where they need to be for the particular matters. And then also doing like large scale decision-making in terms of deciding whether to initiate an action, deciding whether to stay out of the multi-state, joining AG letters, or working with our individual attorneys and line attorneys and crafting the legal arguments that serve the Commonwealth citizens and make sure that you balance that with Virginia’s business-friendly environment as well at the same time. And so that is always a juggling act in making sure that you do it in the best way possible. I will say, working as Chief Deputy, one of the best parts about that job. was working with AG Miyares and his amazing team. We had so many talented attorneys that were public servants, career public servants, and whether they were the line attorneys, the section chiefs, the deputy AGs, the solicitor and the solicitor general’s team, they came together like a well-oiled machine and it was a lot of fun. I loved the work for almost the three years I was there serving alongside the AG, but General Miyares is only one of four AGs that I’ve worked for in Virginia. And so the AG’s office is kind of like my second home in a way. I’m familiar and comfortable with all of the different dynamics, whether it’s criminal, whether it’s education, it’s social services, it’s consumer protection cases. And I feel like I kind of grew up in the office, so to speak, and I’m taking those experiences now to the next level.

Jerry Kilgore

I think you did grow up in the office. I think our listeners would love to know sort of how the sausage is made here and what goes into the Virginia Attorney General’s office, or, and now you know, other attorney generals offices processes. What goes into them deciding to join a multistate or sign on to a letter to direct it to the federal government or an amicus brief directed to a court? What goes into that? Whose opinion do you seek in the office and how far up does that go through the chain?

Chuck Slemp

Well, I’m not certain that the General would want me to give away all of the secrets, but I can say this. Anytime you have an issue presented before the attorney general, whether it is to join a multistate action or initiate a CID or begin an informal investigation, the attorney general is presented with different competing factors I alluded to earlier, making sure that there’s a business friendly environment for the state, making sure that the citizens have adequate representation and making sure the consumers are protected. So balancing all of those things with the political side of the house and the different national trends and state political trends happening is always a challenge. So there’s a lot of voices coming at an attorney general when making a decision. Let’s just use the example of joining a letter on a particular issue hypothetically asking Congress to take action. Okay. And so when that happens, an attorney general wants to make sure that he or she balances the politics, maybe checking with the members of Congress to make sure he’s not stepping on their toes. Also checking with business to make sure that that action doesn’t have unintended consequences. And so many times as we’ve seen, good intentions don’t always lead to great results. And so as chief deputy, what I tried to do was bring together all the different voices. The Solicitor General is brilliant and almost always trained by United States Supreme Court justices and as a clerk. So obviously they bring a different view to it. The deputy AGs have expertise in various areas of the law. Let’s say the consumer protection, the civil deputy would have an in-depth understanding about the rules of court and how things work in their particular state. They may know the judges a little bit better. But as chief deputy, bringing all the voices together and trying to make a recommendation to the AG about whether to join or not. Balancing the politics, the law, the personalities is quite challenging. And then the good news, at least for me, was that I can present that to the AG and make a recommendation, but ultimately it was his decision. And so working with the AG on that to make sure the best decisions are made for the citizens of the Commonwealth.

Jerry Kilgore

But it’s always information gathering and the presentation that the Chief Deputy has to pull it all together for the elected official, the attorney general. So going from deciding to join a lawsuit to actually settling one, I know you’ve been involved in negotiating settlements with companies. And can you talk about that experience and what that does for you now in the private sector?

Chuck Slemp

Let me back up and say the best thing that you can do is make sure that you educate those who are at the top of the office as to what’s going on within the trenches of the office. I mean, in Virginia, we had an office of about 700 people, right? And so that’s a huge staff, attorneys, non-attorneys. And you can’t know every detail about every case. And so for a matter that is important to industry, important to the citizens, to have an advocate to go and make sure that a chief deputy, who is making sure the trains are running on time, is educated as to why cases are important is vital. And so from the outset, beginning a discussion with front end staff about the particular positions in the case. You may not get into the weeds about the law, but the ultimate position is if this particular case moves forward, it’s going to cripple industry. I think that’s an important conversation that you need to have. And I was used to having those conversations a lot as chief deputy. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. And so I really counted on folks like you, Jerry, bringing cases to me and educating me about what was happening within my office. And then I would take that with a grain of salt sometimes and go down and talk to line attorneys and ask them what was going on and try to dig in. And you just got to remember thousands of cases, hundreds of employees, you can’t know everything. And so that’s why it’s really important.

Jerry Kilgore

Some times clients may question, should we really go to the chief deputy in the office and let them know what’s going on? I mean, you’ve worked with chief deputies around the country. What’s your view on that?

Chuck Slemp

Well, I’ve recently had this very conversation with an attorney handling some complex litigation. Should we continue to fight the case in the courts and not bother the AG or the chief deputy? Or should we go over their head to the top? Well, and my position is always, I think educating but being respectful of the hardworking line attorneys who are in the case, making sure that they’re continuing to do their job, but educating the front end staff of the office, that particular case is important is vital. Now you don’t want to wear them out either, but you also should have the open line of communication, that if something does go sideways, that you have somebody that you can talk to. And what was great about my time in state service, General Miyares was active in the National Association of Attorneys General. And so he sent me to a lot of those meetings where I developed friendships on both sides of the aisle politically and was able to really develop some lasting relationships. And so, in the event that, God forbid, we need to be involved in something, I can call up my friend and ask, hey, what’s going on in this particular case? Are you familiar with it or not? And not asking you to do anything yet, just please look into it. I think those are invaluable experiences. And it’s a service that I think lends well for those who are subject to regulatory action in state.

Jerry Kilgore

Talk about the value of amicus briefs in cases that your company or your client may have an interest in at the federal level, at the state level, and how the chief deputy works with solicitor generals in the office and around the country.

Chuck Slemp

Well, depending on the particular type of case or the posture of the case, where it is district court or circuit court level, multistate, local in-state court, having experts provide their expert opinion, so to speak, in the form of an amicus brief, that is vital. And especially if you can have and join forces of different state AGs. You know, let’s say a company or an industry is subject to multistate action of several states, and that you get a group of other states that say, no, that’s not the way it should work, that’s not the way it works in jurisdiction. Having a coalition of those states joining an amicus brief or sending that out is, I think it speaks volumes and I think it, you know, I’ve never been a federal judge, but I think it would be persuasive for the judiciary.

Jerry Kilgore

But it seems like lately the Circuits and the Supreme Court sort of expect or look to state AGs for their opinions.

Chuck Slemp

Yes. Absolutely. 50 state AGs plus the territories in DC, you’ve got the most powerful, arguably the most important position in all of state government weighing in on a particular issue. That speaks volumes, or at least it should. And solicitors general, again, who weigh in and are listened to by the AG, as they should be, provide that service of the appellate advocacy, but coordinating between the chief deputies and the solicitors, making sure that they’re all on the same page and presenting a united front forward for the AG, I think is really important. And it’s not just amicus briefs, but it’s also letters. You know, the AGs provide advocacy, whether it’s on, I mentioned congressional legislation, but advocacy on a host of different issues. And if they can speak, several states speaking together with one voice, that carries significant weight.

Jerry Kilgore

But I know while you were at AG, the tragedy at UVA happened. And I know the office played a tremendous role. And you probably can’t talk about a lot of the role you played, given the attorney-client privilege, but I know you all played a role in investigating, during some of the aftermath of that shooting at the university.

Chuck Slemp

Yeah, first of all, it was a tragic occurrence in the loss of life. We mourn… my heart still goes out to those families and those students whose lives were cut short. during my time at the Office of Attorney General, we had an opportunity to work with the administration at the University of Virginia to investigate what went wrong and what happened and the circumstances that led to it and working with our state and federal law enforcement officials to make sure that the perpetrator was brought to justice, but also make sure that a tragedy like that never happened again. Bringing together those different resources, and as chief deputy, I led the investigation and worked with our independent counsel to be able to come in and provide an external review. And that kind of service, working with private industry and outside counsel, is something that I’m experienced at, not just through the UVA shooting case, but we had other investigations, the parole board, the Loudoun County Schools investigation and then borrowing on some of my experience as a district attorney. Investigations practice is something that I think is, you know, the need for external investigations are out there and I bring that to the firm.

Jerry Kilgore

And lot of companies need that too when they face a critical situation.

Chuck Slemp

Indeed, and it doesn’t have to be a violent act. It could be some kind of internal, whether it’s a financial or human resource, God forbid, issue. There’s a lot of opportunities for companies when they need some external review and advice on what went wrong or maybe what they could do better or a circumstance. That’s a service that I think is out there.

Jerry Kilgore

Well, I think we should spend the last few minutes of our discussion talking about what issues you see on the horizon, what issues SAGs currently are working on, and how those are going to be important to clients here at Cozen.

Chuck Slemp

Well, first off, you can’t go to a single AG meeting without somebody talking about AI. The rise of artificial intelligence and different challenges and opportunities that that presents in the marketplace, I think is fascinating. And it is certainly on the minds of attorneys general across the country. And it’s certainly something that attorneys, regardless of where they are, need to be aware of, and companies need to be armed with that knowledge and information. I think that’s an area that we’re going to see potentially multistate action in, and it’s something that is definitely on the horizon. Likewise, data privacy. As you know, many states, Virginia, adopted a privacy, a comprehensive privacy statute. I know other states have either adopted or in the process of adopting similar rules. And this is particularly challenging in our ever-growing technologically advanced age where everything is accessible at the touch of a button and your data is out there and companies rely on information gathering and data to do their work, their important work.

With that being said, states have created regimes of regulation that make it extraordinarily risky for companies who are just doing business. And there’s quite frequently companies who are victims of some kind of, whether it be a cyberattack or bad actor, and then those companies wind up being subject to litigation. So they’re prosecuted for being a victim. And navigating that challenging landscape is something that, obviously, working as the Chief Deputy AG during a time when the privacy law came online and staffing up our privacy office at the Virginia AG’s office, I’m familiar with and also I’ve worked on trying to familiarize myself with other states and how they do things maybe a little bit different. But the principles remain the same. Companies need to be prepared. They need to be armed with the information about different states’ privacy laws and they also need to be ready to move on a moment’s notice to get before an AG because if they are a victim of a cyberattack or some sort of data privacy information security breach, they need to take immediate action to avoid having themselves become the target instead of the victim.

Jerry Kilgore

Great. We are excited that you’ve joined the State Attorney General team here at Cozen O’Connor. There’s a lot of advice and just general working with clients that you can provide to our clients here at Cozen. Knowing that you’re going to hit the ground running with all your experience as chief deputy, as an elected official, and even in private practice, doing your own investigations, I know our clients are going to benefit greatly from you.

Chuck Slemp

Well, thank you. I’m thrilled to be a part of the team. I started my career working with you, Jerry, when you were Attorney General of Virginia. And so it’s great, great to be back working alongside you again. And I’m really excited about what we can do together.

Jerry Kilgore

We are too. Look forward to working with you more.

And thank you for joining us today on our podcast. were excited to have Chuck Slemp, a new member of our State Attorneys General team with us today. We encourage you to continue listening to these podcasts. will, we will have another one come out in about two weeks.