Patrick Marley

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - Republican lawmakers are charging taxpayers nearly twice as much an hour as Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in the legal fight over Wisconsin's lame-duck laws.

Taxpayers will pay the lead attorney for lawmakers $500 an hour, according to contracts released Friday under the state's open records law. The law firm Evers has hired is charging taxpayers $275 an hour.

The deals Evers cut are capped at $100,000, though that limit could be raised if the litigation is extensive. There are no caps on how much attorneys for the Republicans can charge.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau defended how Republicans structured their contracts.

“We didn’t pick this fight, but we will defend the rights of the Legislature against the liberal activists bringing these suits," Fitzgerald said in a statement. "Legal representation wouldn’t be necessary at all if Governor Evers would have his allies drop these legal actions."

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Analiese Eicher, executive director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, decried the way Republicans were handling the lawsuits.

"They're showing their disregard for our tax dollars now with open-ended contracts for lawyers charging $500 an hour to defend their reckless and undemocratic acts," she said in a statement.

The arrangements were prompted by litigation over laws Republican lawmakers passed in December to curb the powers of Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. Republicans passed the laws after Evers and Kaul were elected but before they were sworn in.

The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, Disability Rights Wisconsin and Black Leaders Organizing for Communities in January filed suit in Dane County arguing the laws were improperly passed.

That suit was brought against Evers and the state Elections Commission, which was named because some of the lame-duck laws affected voting regulations.

Kaul declined to represent Evers and the commission because he has a stake in the outcome. Evers hired Pines Bach of Madison to represent him and Lawton & Cates of Madison to represent the commission.

Both firms are charging $275 an hour, up to a maximum of $50,000 each for that case.

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This week, unions filed a separate lawsuit against Evers, Kaul and legislative leaders contending the lame-duck laws violated the state constitution's separation-of-powers doctrine.

Evers retained Pines Bach for that lawsuit under the same terms, with a separate $50,000 cap for the firm's work on that case.

Legislative leaders this week signed contracts with the national law firm Troutman Sanders to represent them in the two lawsuits.

The lead attorney, former Wisconsin Solicitor General Misha Tseytlin, will charge $500 an hour. Other lawyers at the firm might charge less, but the contracts do not specify their rates.

Tseytlin did not immediately respond to an email Friday.

The attorney general hasn't said whether he will hire private attorneys at taxpayer expense to represent him.

Unknown at this point is what legal position Evers and Kaul will take in the cases.

They were sued in their official capacities because they are required to carry out state laws. But they both oppose the lame-duck laws and could side with those bringing the lawsuits to argue the laws are unconstitutional.

A third legal action was filed over the lame-duck session, but that one doesn't involve taxpayer-funded private attorneys. In that case, a federal judge swiftly struck down limits on early voting included in one of the lame-duck laws.

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The hiring of private attorneys at taxpayer expense comes as legal costs mount in other cases.

GOP lawmakers recently agreed to pay the Chicago firm Bartlit Beck up to $840,000 to represent them in a lawsuit over legislative maps they drew in 2011. Including previous expenses, those maps and the lawsuits they spawned are on track to cost taxpayers $3.5 million.

This article has been corrected to note Evers hired the law firm for the state Elections Commission. An earlier version said the commission did the hiring.