Ex-AG Coakley joins panel on Beacon Hill harassment policies
November 23, 2017 By MATT STOUT — matthew.stout@bostonherald.com
IN THE HOUSE:
Partner at Former Attorney General Martha Coakley is in a group of high-powered lawyers looking at the House of Representatives’ sexual harassment policies.
Beacon Hill is turning to former Attorney General Martha Coakley and three other lawyers to help the House of Representatives with a “comprehensive” review of sexual harassment policies, adding to a tab of outside legal help the Legislature has run up in recent years.
The addition of Coakley, now with the powerhouse firm Foley Hoag, comes after Speaker of the House Robert A. DeLeo filed an order in late October launching the review amid a wave of sexual harassment reports — both in the State House and nationwide.
James Kennedy, the House counsel, told lawmakers and staff in an email that he has hired Coakley; Jennifer Kirby, also with Foley Hoag; and attorneys Paul Holtzman and Jill Brenner Meixel, both of Krokidas & Bluestein LLP, saying they have “expertise in employment law and compliance.”
The House had tapped Holtzman’s firm before, paying it $132,000 since 2012 for “human resource related matters.”
The bill is part of nearly $1 million in attorneys fees taxpayers have covered for state lawmakers and staff over the past five years, paid for using a little-known account.
Officials in the House and Senate have said the tab included no payouts for sexual harassment claims, the Herald reported this week.
The current review isn’t focused on any claims, but ways the House can improve its handling of harassment complaints, its recordkeeping practices and how it metes out discipline. The order, which specifically allowed House attorneys to hire outside legal help, called for a report by March 1, 2018.
Coakley said in a statement released through a spokeswoman that the House should be commended for taking “quick action” to review its policies.
“As a former Attorney General and (Middlesex) District Attorney, I look forward to providing support and guidance as the House works to review and enhance its policies and procedures in this important area,” she said.
A DeLeo spokesman said yesterday he did not have an estimate of the cost to hire the four attorneys. But the Winthrop Democrat has defended the Legislature’s legal bills, calling its reporting “transparent.”
The tab has drawn scrutiny, including from Gov. Charlie Baker, who questioned the payouts’ transparency, saying this week that it’s “worth taking a look at whether there should be some sort of structure” requiring the fees to be “publicly noted.”
His office said yesterday it has racked up $1.09 million in attorneys fees since 2015, “almost all of which” is tied to two lawsuits linked to Baker’s predecessor, Deval Patrick, and have been reported to both the comptroller and Legislature.
They include a suit brought by the former head of the Sex Offender Registry Board, whom Patrick fired in 2014, and a wrongful-termination suit filed by a past member of the state Parole Board, one of several Patrick canned in 2011, according to Baker’s office.
