Posted on 12/03/2004 6:57:58 PM PST by Dan from Michigan
Engler tabs former consultant to head new legal reform group
12/3/2004, 6:33 p.m. ET
By DAVID EGGERT
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A former campaign manager and chief of staff to former Michigan Gov. John Engler said Friday that he's leaving his Lansing political consulting firm to lead a new legal reform project spearheaded by the National Association of Manufacturers, which Engler now runs.
Dan Pero will direct the national American Justice Partnership. He said the partnership wants to work with groups such as the American Tort Reform Association and state chambers of commerce to address medical malpractice issues, asbestos litigation and state Supreme Court elections.
Conservative justices on the Michigan Supreme Court, he said, are the type of judges the group will try to get elected in other states. The group prefers judges who don't expand the law beyond the Legislature's intent, Pero said in an interview.
Another issue the group wants to address is venue shopping, where plaintiffs try to get their cases heard in places such as Illinois' Madison County, which is perceived to be among the most plaintiff-friendly in the country, Pero said.
Engler, now president of the Washington, D.C.-based manufacturing group, asked Pero to head the project.
"This is an exciting opportunity — to work with John again — and to work on such an important issue," Pero said in a release. "We will focus our efforts on state legal reform initiatives, including issue advocacy, state legislation and court rule reform and targeted public education campaigns to chip away at America's lawsuit-happy culture."
Pero will leave his position this month as a partner in The Sterling Corp. He will continue to live in Michigan, in Laingsburg northeast of Lansing.
Besides working for Engler, Pero also was the 1996 presidential campaign manager for former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander and has worked for the Eckerd Corp., a large retail drug store chain.
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