Special Issue: Government Law
| Publication year | 2009 |
| Pages | 19 |
| Citation | Vol. 38 No. 10 Pg. 19 |
2009, October, Pg. 19. Special Issue: Government Law
October 2009
Vol. 38, No. 10 [Page 19]
John W. Suthers has served as Colorado's Attorney General since January 2005. Prior to becoming Attorney General, Suthers served as the U.S. Attorney for Colorado, as District Attorney of the Fourth Judicial District, and as Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections.
I have had the privilege of practicing law for thirty-two years, nineteen of them in the public sector. During this time, I have managed three large public law offices-as District Attorney for the Fourth Judicial District, as U.S. Attorney for Colorado, and as the Colorado Attorney General. Because of my background and experience, I think I have a pretty good feel for many of the unique challenges facing government lawyers.
As a government lawyer, the attorney-client relationship is fundamentally different from that of private practitioners retained by individuals or private entities. Government attorneys have a dual role in their representation: they represent a governmental agency or employee in a particular sense, and they represent the interests of the sovereign or the public-at-large in a general sense. This dual role is recognized by the courts and attorney disciplinary authorities. In some circumstances, viewing the public rather than a specific public employee or governmental agency as the client may lead to a different course of action. Representing a sovereign also can lead to broader ethical responsibilities. Government lawyers have a duty to act fairly and to promote justice, and not simply to attempt to prevail in the controversy in which they are engaged. At the same time, they must act zealously to promote the public interest. They are first and foremost a servant of the law.
Understanding the intricacies of government liability requires extensive knowledge of both state and federal law. For example, the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act and federal § 1983 litigation, including the doctrines of absolute and qualified immunity, are a lot to master. Administrative law also is fraught with complexity. Natural resource and environmental law has grown increasingly complex from a governmental viewpoint. It is no wonder that most large governmental law offices have had to develop many specialists in...
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