THE SIX MILLION CLIENT LAWYER

Last year, Eric Schmitt chided the Missouri Attorney General‘s Office for the way it defended a state law he authored that limited how much municipalities can collect from fines. As of next year, Schmitt will have a chance to craft such defenses his own way.

Gov. Mike Parson on Nov. 13 named Schmitt, currently the state’s elected Republican treasurer, to be the state’s next attorney general. He will replace Josh Hawley, who was elected Nov. 6 to the U.S. Senate and will take office in January.

In a statement, Schmitt said it will be “an incredible honor to be named the lawyer for 6 million Missourians.”

“I believe everyone is granted the right to be treated equally under the law. No matter who you are, what race or religion you are, your background, your creed — every single person is entitled to equality of opportunity and a fair shake under the law,” he said.

Schmitt, 43, won the treasurer’s election in 2016. He previously had served two terms in the Missouri Senate and was a partner with Lathrop & Gage in St. Louis, where he practiced business and real estate litigation. He earned his law degree in 2000 from Saint Louis University. He also served as an alderman in the St. Louis suburb of Glendale.

Schmitt’s former partners at Lathrop congratulated him on the move. The firm’s managing partner, Cameron Garrison, said in an email that Schmitt “continues Lathrop Gage’s proud tradition of public service.” Scott Malin, deputy managing partner of the St. Louis office, said that during Schmitt’s 10 years with the firm, he “demonstrated exceptional leadership skills, an aptitude of the law and the integrity that makes him an optimal choice for the state’s chief legal officer.”

With Parson’s appointment, Missouri’s slate of statewide officeholders increasingly resembles the 2015-16 roster of the Missouri Senate. Parson and Schmitt served together in the Senate, as did Mike Kehoe, the former majority floor leader whom Parson named to succeed him as lieutenant governor.

“It was important to appoint someone who has already been thoroughly vetted by the people of Missouri,” Parson said in a statement. “Eric is someone who I highly respect, personally trust, and have full confidence to serve as Missouri’s chief law enforcement officer.”

Parson, who previously was the state’s lieutenant governor, became governor in June after Gov. Eric Greitens resigned to end a criminal investigation against him. By moving Schmitt to the attorney general’s office, Parson also will be able to appoint a replacement in the treasurer’s office. That potentially would allow him to have named half of the six statewide elected officials in Missouri, though the Missouri Supreme Court is weighing whether he had the authority to appoint a lieutenant governor.

Missouri Lawyers Weekly named Schmitt an Up & Coming lawyer in 2014 and a Missouri Lawyers Award winner in 2016. He also was chairman of The Missouri Bar’s Young Lawyers Section Council. Among Schmitt’s legislative accomplishments was a tax-cut bill in 2014 and, as the father of a son with special needs, he championed several bills to help individuals with disabilities.

He is best known for a 2015 law that, following unrest in Ferguson, made major changes to St. Louis County’s municipal court system. Among other things, the bill lowered the cap that municipalities can collect from fines from 30 percent to 20 percent.

It also sought to set a lower cap of 12.5 percent for the numerous cities within St. Louis County, whose practices had sparked the original bill. The Missouri Supreme Court last year struck down that part of the cap as an unconstitutional special law.

In a statement at the time, Schmitt thanked the court for generally upholding the law but argued that the state, represented by the attorney general’s office, had failed to present the “strong statistical evidence” that the municipal court system in the St. Louis region had “treated citizens like ATMs.” Schmitt was serving as treasurer at the time of the May 2017 ruling, but the case had been argued while he was still a senator and while the attorney general’s office was still under Democrat Chris Koster.

Under Hawley, a Republican, the office has taken part in a multistate lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. At a news conference, Parson said Schmitt and Hawley will discuss pending litigation at a later date.

It’s not clear if Schmitt, who could not be reached for further comment, would run to be elected as attorney general in 2020. If so, he already faces at least one Democratic challenger: Elad Gross, an attorney in St. Louis who recently announced his intention to run for the office.

Gross also is the plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking financial records involving so-called “dark money” from A New Missouri, a nonprofit organization associated with former Gov. Greitens. A Cole County judge dismissed the suit earlier this month. Gross is appealing and said he would like the attorney general’s office to intervene in the suit.

In an interview, Gross congratulated Schmitt on the appointment and said the path his own candidacy for attorney general would take would depend to some degree on what Schmitt does in office.

“I’m hopeful that we’ll see some changes at the attorney general’s office, but that’s to be determined,” he said.