Advisory Opinion No. 2003-67

Re: Mary Ellen McQueeney-Lally, Esq.

QUESTION PRESENTED

The petitioner, a part time attorney with the Rhode Island Department of Labor, a State employee position, requests an advisory opinion regarding whether she may in her private practice lobby on behalf of the Rhode Island Right to Life Committee before the legislative and executive branches of Rhode Island government.

RESPONSE

It is the opinion of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission that the petitioner, a part time attorney with the Rhode Island Department of Labor, a State employee position, may in her private practice lobby on behalf of the Rhode Island Right to Life Committee provided that the petitioner recuse from participating in matters that come before her as an attorney with the Rhode Island Department of Labor and refrains from lobbying the Rhode Island Department of Labor.

The petitioner represents that she is employed as a part time attorney with the Rhode Island Department of Labor. In that capacity, she informs that her duties consist of court appearances, legal opinions and writing rules and regulations. Additionally, she informs that she is an attorney in private practice. In that capacity, she states that she lobbies the General Assembly and the executive branch for one of her clients, the Rhode Island Right to Life Committee. She seeks this advisory opinion to determine whether the Code of Ethics prohibits her from simultaneously serving as a part time attorney with the Rhode Island Department of Labor while lobbying the general assembly and executive branch on behalf of a private client. Furthermore, the petitioner represents that she would not lobby the Rhode Island Department of Labor.

Under the Code of Ethics, a state employee may not accept other employment that will either impair her independence of judgment as to her official duties or employment or require her to disclose confidential information acquired by her in the course of her official duties. R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-5(b). She may not represent herself or any other person before any state or municipal agency of which she is a member or by which she is employed. R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-5(e)(1), (2). She is prohibited from using her public position or confidential information received through her position to obtain financial gain, other than that provided by law, for herself, a family member, business associate, or any business by which she is employed or represents. R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-5(d). She may not participate in any matter in which she has an interest, financial or otherwise, which is in substantial conflict with the proper discharge of her duties in the public interest. R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-5(a). A substantial conflict of interest occurs if she has reason to believe or expect that she or any family member or business associate, or any business by which she is employed, will derive a direct monetary gain or suffer a direct monetary loss by reason of her official activity. R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-7(a).

In an analogous advisory opinion, A.O. 96-11, the Commission opined that the Code of Ethics does not prohibit an analyst with the Rhode Island State Budget Office from acting as a registered lobbyist for a private organization. See also A.O. 2003-43 (opining that an employee at the Rhode Island State Budget Office may act on his own time as an unpaid registered lobbyist for various organizations and social causes).

Here, provided that the petitioner engages in the aforedescribed, private activity on her own time and without the use of public resources, there is no indication that this private activity is in substantial conflict with the petitioner's public duties as a part time attorney with the Rhode Island Department of Labor. Nor does it appear likely that such private activity would impair her independence of judgment as to her official duties. Furthermore, based on the petitioner’s representations, she would not be representing herself or any other person or business before her own department. For these reasons, the Code does not prohibit the petitioner from lobbying the General Assembly and the executive branch on behalf of a private client.

Further, the petitioner is cautioned against using confidential information obtained through her position as an attorney with the Department of Labor to obtain financial gain for any client for which she is a lobbyist. See R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-5(d).

Code Citations:

36-14-5(a)

36-14-5(b)

36-14-5(d)

36-14-5(e)

36-14-6

36-14-7(a)

Related Advisory Opinions:

2003-42

2003-28

2001-26

99-45

96-11

Keywords:

Private Employment

Lobbying