On her first full day on the job, Attorney General Jan Graham said she's ready to take another look at using outside counsel to defend Utah's abortion law.
State officials must decide whether to appeal a December ruling by U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene that the state could not ban abortions before the 21st week of pregnancy.Once the judge signs the final order, the state and the plaintiff - the American Civil Liberties Union - have 30 days to appeal to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
"I think there are a lot of good reasons to bring the case back to the attorney general's office," Graham said after meeting behind closed doors with Gov. Mike Leavitt for more than two hours on Tuesday.
The attorney general's office "can provide legal counsel more cheaply," Graham said. "Cost is first and foremost my concern. I believe the people of Utah are very concerned about the cost of legal battles."
The topic did not come up during Tuesday's meeting, but the two have discussed it before. The governor hasn't decided yet whether the state should continue retaining outside legal counsel on the case.
"I'm not saying he's willing to go along with it necessarily, but he's willing to talk about it," said LaVarr Webb, Leavitt's deputy for policy. Graham said she hopes to meet with Leavitt again this week on the subject.
More than $750,000 has been spent so far defending the 1991 law, which bans abortions except in cases of rape, incest, grave fetal deformity or pregnancies that threaten the mother's health.
Mary Anne Wood, the lawyer hired to represent the state in the lawsuit, said she believes her small law office is giving taxpayers a better deal. "I think we have done a remarkable job of keeping the cost under budget," Wood said.
The private firm can be financially "competitive because we are so knowledgeable about the case," she said. "We've tried to do a good job and we'll continue to do a good job."
Wood took over the case from Jones, Waldo, Holbrook & Mc-Don-ough after that large law firm disclosed it was also representing one of the plaintiffs in the case, a women's clinic.
That conflict of interest generated much controversy, in part because Graham had been a partner in the firm before joining the attorney general's office as solicitor general.
Outside counsel was hired in the first place because then-Gov. Norm Bangerter and other supporters of the law did not trust then-Attorney General Paul Van Dam, a Democrat, to defend it.
Like Bangerter, Leavitt is a pro-life Republican. And like Van Dam, Graham is a pro-choice Democrat. But both Leavitt and Graham said Tuesday their personal views aren't an issue.
"I'm a lawyer, and I'm going to do the best possible job in defending the laws of the state of Utah," Graham said. "Personal views of mine or any other lawyer in my office are entirely irrelevant."