Advisory Opinion No. 2001-73

Re: David V. Igliozzi, Esq.

QUESTION PRESENTED

The petitioner, a legislator serving as a State Senator, a state elected position, requests an advisory opinion as to whether he may represent a private client in a hearing before a hearing referee of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training given his position as a State Senator.

RESPONSE

It is the opinion of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission that the Code of Ethics does not prohibit the petitioner, a legislator serving as a State Senator, a state elected position, from representing his private client in a hearing before the Department of Labor and Training (DLT).

The petitioner advises that, in his private practice of law, he represents a company that terminated one of its employees “for cause.” On that basis, the employee was denied unemployment compensation by the DLT. This employee has appealed such denial to a hearing referee at the DLT, and a hearing has been scheduled at which the petitioner’s client and the former employee will be the opposing parties.

Commission Regulation 5008 prohibits, among other things, a state elected official having fiscal or jurisdictional control over a state agency from acting as a compensated attorney before such agency in a matter in which the state has an interest or is a party. Here, the petitioner’s representation of a client before the DLT would not implicate the prohibitions set forth in Regulation 5008(a) given that the State of Rhode Island is neither a party to the proceedings nor has it an interest in same. The relevant parties are the petitioner’s private client, an employer, and his client’s former employee, who seeks to challenge the client’s claim that the employee was terminated for “cause.” Based upon these facts, the Code of Ethics does not prohibit the petitioner from representing his client at the DLT hearing.

Code Citations:

36-14-5008

Related Advisory Opinions:

2000-53

2000-8

99-6

97-40

92-55

Keywords:

Acting as Agent