Atty. who inspired John Grisham novel to run for State Attorney General [View all]

[Divernan]

Chris Potter / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh attorney David Fawcett, a former Allegheny County Councilman whose legal crusade against an Appalachian coal baron prompted a U.S. Supreme Court opinion and a John Grisham novel, will run for state attorney general as a Democrat next year.

"The office of Attorney General is, unfortunately, dysfunctional," said Mr. Fawcett, referencing beleaguered incumbent Kathleen Kane. “I'm running to provide the kind of leadership needed to reinvigorate the office and return integrity to it."

An attorney at Reed Smith, Mr. Fawcett is best known for representing Hugh Caperton, a West Virginia coal-mine owner who sued one of the industry's titans: former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship

Mr. Caperton alleged that Mr. Blankenship drove his firm into bankruptcy through unscrupulous business dealings, and in 2002, Mr. Fawcett and another attorney won him a $50 million jury verdict. West Virginia's Supreme Court reversed the ruling, but the 3-2 majority included a justice who won election with $3 million of help from Mr. Blankenship. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled the justice should have recused himself because, given Mr. Blankenship’s support, the "probability of actual bias rises to an unconstitutional level." "I knew it was going to be the fight of my life," Mr. Fawcett said of the case,which inspired John Grisham's 2008 novel "The Appeal." The Caperton saga, he said, “implicates the entire justice system.”


While Mr. Fawcett has never been a prosecutor, he said he had “decades of experience” in “fighting companies who value profits over the rule of law, and taking on judicial corruption."