Mississippi changes legal team to handle welfare fraud case
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Department of Human Services is hiring a different law firm to try to recover millions of dollars in welfare money that was misspent in the state’s largest public corruption case in decades.
The state Personnel Board on Thursday approved a contract for the department to hire the Jones Walker firm, which has about 370 attorneys in multiple states, the department said in a news release.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican, also approved the contract for the civil litigation.
The move comes weeks after Department of Human Services leaders chose not to renew a contract with Brad Pigott of Jackson, an attorney in solo private practice who had been the U.S. attorney for southern Mississippi when Democrat Bill Clinton was president.