David Rivkin

Behind The Lawsuit: Florida AG Turned To Beltway Fixture -- And Old Lobbying Pal -- For Health-Care Challenge

Zachary Roth | March 25, 2010, 11:42AM

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and attorney David Rivkin, Jr.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has so far served as the public face for the legal challenge to the constitutionality of health-care reform. But on the legal heavy-lifting, McCollum has had help from a top member of Washington's conservative legal establishment and former Bush 41 White House lawyer, who once teamed up with the AG as a lobbyist.

David Rivkin, a lawyer with white-shoe DC firm Baker Hostetler, told TPMmuckraker that McCollum personally asked him to get involved with the lawsuit, once it appeared that the reform bill would indeed finally pass. "McCollum approached me on behalf of himself and several other AGs," said Rivkin, who along with Lee Casey, another Baker Hostetler lawyer, is listed on the lawsuit as "of counsel."

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