Legal Ethics
Ohio AG’s Husband Resigns from Vorys Amid Conflicts Issues
Posted Aug 6, 2008, 07:36 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The husband of a law school dean who was named Ohio’s attorney general has retired from his law firm after questions about potential conflicts of interest.
Douglas Rogers is retiring from Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, which does more than $1 million in business with the state of Ohio, the Columbus Dispatch reports. Rogers’ wife, Attorney General Nancy Rogers, has removed herself and her top deputy, a former Vorys lawyer, from any decisions involving the award of legal work to the law firm. She also asked the Ohio Ethics Commission for its advice on how to deal with the conflicts issues.
Rogers was named on an interim basis to replace former state attorney general Marc Dann, who resigned amid allegations that his office had a fraternity house atmosphere. Rogers was the dean of Ohio State University's law school.
The director of the Ohio Ethics Commission, David Freel, told the newspaper there is still a potential conflict because Vorys will pay retirement benefits to Douglas Rogers. However he said the process Nancy Rogers established to eliminate herself from decisions affecting the firm makes sense.