Connecticut AG Looking for Free Help From Attorneys to Sue the Firearms Industry

The Connecticut Attorney General’s office has hundreds of employees and dozens of attorneys on the payroll, but Attorney General William Tong is looking for some outside counsel willing to work for free on “investigations, potential litigation and legislative proposals concerning gun violence prevention matters and firearms industry accountability.”

In a Request for Proposal released on July 17, Tong’s office outlined the broad scope of the legal matters the pro bono attorneys might be working on. They include:

a) Representing, assisting, advising, and providing legal counsel to the OAG with investigations and litigation related gun violence prevention matters and firearms industry accountability, including but not limited to current investigations and cases, and proposing new opportunities for future investigations and litigation

(b) Providing legal counsel related to proposed legislation regarding the firearms industry and strengthening current legislation related to the same;

(c) Review, analysis, investigation and research necessary to carry out the Services; including but not limited to certain aspects of discovery.

(d) Conduct or assist, at the direction of the ATTORNEY GENERAL, in taking or defending depositions or interviews of witnesses and experts and provide applicable legal and factual analysis;

(e) Review documents according to discovery management protocols established by the ATTORNEY GENERAL and/or his staff and produce reports based on such review.

(f) Availability upon the reasonable request of the ATTORNEY GENERAL to consult with the ATTORNEY GENERAL and/or his staff;

(g) Preparing, writing, and providing to the ATTORNEY GENERAL and/or his staff, documents and instruments, in electronic, magnetic, paper, and any other form a snecessary;

(h) Preparing, writing, or assisting the ATTORNEY GENERAL and/or his staff, in preparing certain documents, including pleadings and legal briefs on discovery motions, dispositive motions, pre- and post-trial motions, and other motions or submissions to the court;

(i) Negotiating and/or engaging in mediation, with the approval of the ATTORNEY GENERAL and/or his staff, with any other/or all parties. No settlement discussion may be conducted, settlement offer proposed, or settlement entered into without the direction and approval of the ATTORNEY GENERAL and/or his staff. The ATTORNEY GENERAL and/or his staff may participate in any settlement negotiation or mediation;

My favorite potential service to be performed is “Providing staff, equipment, and expertise to minimize the administrative burdens imposed on the ATTORNEY GENERAL and/or his staff, and other state agencies, employees, and officials.” So, not only is Tong looking for some free lawyering, but he’d like some free services from legal secretaries, paralegals, and other support staff. 

The sad thing is that some firms will probably be eager to work with Tong in going after firearm industry members, even if they’re not getting paid to do so. You won’t find any big firms willing to work pro bono to defend the firearms industry or the Second Amendment, though. 

In fact, some law firms won’t even do that job when they’re getting paid for it. When former Solicitor General and longtime Second Amendment attorney Paul Clement was victorious in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen in 2022, the law firm he worked for announced it would no longer be taking on clients in Second Amendment cases. Clement and his colleague Erin Murphy quit Kirkland & Ellis and started their own boutique firm specializing in Second Amendment litigation. 

Tong is looking for attorneys with “substantial experience in public enforcement litigation or litigation pertaining to firearms” to help him sue gun makers, distributors, and sellers. Those attorneys need to work for firms that have the “financial resources and commitment to carry out this undertaking,” so it sounds like the AG is planning on using this free labor extensively. 

This is uber-liberal Connecticut we’re talking about, so there are also some other considerations in play. Firms responding to the RFP must discuss the extent to which their workforce, at the attorney level, at the other professional staff level, and at the other support staff level, “reflects or does not reflect the diversity of your community and its surrounding area.

To the extent that your workforce does not fully reflect the diversity of your community, discuss and explain the action, if any, you have taken and are taking to achieve staffing that is more reflective of the diversity of your community and the results of those efforts.

There’s one other item worth noting. Even though Tong is asking these firms and attorneys to provide pro bono services, he’s apparently willing to consider cutting a check if no firm wants to work for free. 

While the OAG prefers a pro-bono fee arrangement, if your proposal includes fees and/or costs, please include all appropriate information in your proposal.

(A) Hourly Fees. Include a detailed and specific fee proposal. You must include a fee proposal with specific hourly rates both for the specific personnel and for each category of person who will work on the assignment (excluding clerical staff, whose time may not be billed). Firms responding to this RFP should be aware that the draft contract does not permit reimbursement of any overhead related expenses including, but not limited to, photocopying, secretarial work, facsimiles, clerical staff, library staff, proofreading, elementary legal research, electronic research portal charges, meals or in-State transportation or other costs.

(B) Small Business Express. Include a flat rate per transaction fee proposal for preparation and review of transactional documents and related legal services for grants or loans under the Small Business Express Program. Also include, as an alternative, hourly rates for services related to this program.

It’s entirely possible that Connecticut taxpayers are going to be on the hook for Tong’s outside help in trying to hold members of the firearms industry financially responsible for the actions of criminals. 

It seems to me that Tong would be better off seeking help defending Connecticut’s ban on so-called assault weapons, which will soon receive scrutiny from the Supreme Court. 

It could be that the Attorney General sees the writing on the wall and is preparing to wage legal war on the firearms industry in response or anticipation of the state’s gun ban being struck down. I suspect that even if SCOTUS had not granted cert to the lawsuits challenging Connecticut’s “assault weapon” ban, Tong would still be recruiting anti-2A law firms to go after gun makers and sellers, but this may very well be even more of a priority now that ban’s future is pretty bleak. 

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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