Did Bysiewicz Pay the Fare?

Some grinding of the gears for Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz’s abrupt shift from the race for governor to the one for attorney general.  Ryan McKeen at A Connecticut Law Blog (served with a side of baseball) raises the question of whether Bysiewicz meeter the  the 10 years of active practice as a lawyer in Connecticut required to be attorney general.  There’s probably some scrambling going on at Bysiewicz Central this afternoon as Channel 8 has picked up on the story and awaits an answer.

Here’s an easy way to determine if Bysiewicz comes close to meeting that threshold question.  Did she pay the annual $110 fee to the Client Security Fund required of every lawyer and judge in Connecticut?

According to the Judicial branch website, “The fee must be paid by each attorney admitted to practice in Connecticut, and each judge, judge trial referee, state referee, family support magistrate, family support referee and workers compensation commissioner. Attorneys permitted to engage in authorized activities as authorized house counsel pursuant to Practice Book Section 2-15A are also required to pay the fee.”

Did she pay the annual Attorney Occupational Tax?  The $565.00 fee is due at the start of each year.  Bysiewicz fits none of the exemptions.

We await a response from the Bysiewicz campaign.

UPDATE:  A spokesman for Bysiewicz says she claimed an exemption from the occupational tax as “a Connecticut state employee employed as an attorney [who] did not otherwise engage in the practice of law.”   In addition, her office paid her annual fee to the Client Security Fund with taxpayer money.

The Secretary of the State is not, however, employed as an attorney.  Bysiewicz claims she supervised lawyers in her office, but so does Governor Rell. That doesn’t make her “employed as attorney….”  Many commissioners and other state officials have lawyers as subordinates, but that doesn’t mean they are employed as lawyers in the active practice of law.