Person Picked To Help Sue BP For State Also A Former BP Lobbyist

June 2, 2010
By Preston Rudie – 10 Connects

Former State Attorney General Jim Smith was selected last month to help Florida with any possible lawsuits against British Petroleum when he was named a chair of the Oil Spill Legal Advisory Council. But now some want Smith to explain his past relationship with BP.

Smith was a registered lobbyist for the oil company on and off between 2001 and 2005.

“If you had a neighbor who had destroyed your lawn and you were going to hire an attorney to represent you, you’d probably want to know if your attorney used to have a financial relationship with your neighbor before you hired them,” Executive Director of Progress Florida Mark Ferrulo told 10 Connects.

Smith recently told the Tallahassee Democrat his lobbying firm did represent BP, but that he had no personal involvement with that client and has no loyalty to it. He also told the newspaper he only registered as a BP lobbyist out of an abundance of caution.

However, Ferrulo believes Smith should divulge more information about his relationship with BP, including how much work his firm did for the company.

“We think that if he is going to be representing Floridians and working to potentially recover hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more in economic damages that we potentially face here in Florida, we have a right to know what exactly were the details of his relationship with British Petroleum in the past.”

10 Connects attempted to contact Smith on Tuesday but our calls were not immediately returned.

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