Patrick Lynch (Rhode Island attorney general)

Early career

While attending St. Raphael Academy in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Lynch excelled at basketball and baseball. He went on to attend Brown University, where he led the basketball team to its first Ivy League Championship and its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

He graduated from Brown University with a B.S. in Economics and Political Science in 1987 and took graduate courses at Queen's University of Belfast while playing professional basketball in Northern Ireland and taking part in a program called Sports Corps, modeled after the Peace Corps.

After returning to the United States, Lynch earned a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School in 1992. He then worked for two years as a clerk for Presiding Superior Court Joseph Rodgers, Jr., and then joined the R.I. attorney general's office in 1994. Lynch was eventually named lead prosecutor of the state's Organized Crime Unit. In 1999, Lynch joined Rhode Island law firm Tillinghast Licht Perkins Smith & Cohen, where he worked until being elected attorney general.

Political career

Lynch formally announced his candidacy in March 2002 after incumbent Sheldon Whitehouse announced he would run for governor. Lynch was a well connected member of the Democratic Party - his father was a former Mayor of Pawtucket, Rhode Island and his brother was serving as Chairman of the R.I. Democratic Party. Lynch faced J. William Harsch, a former director of the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, who ran as an independent but had the endorsement of the state Republican Party. Lynch won the election with 62 percent of the vote.

While in office, Lynch has advocated for stricter laws regarding drunken-driving and the use of handguns. He has also proposed measures that would link school attendance rates and teenagers' driving privileges, increase penalties against people who provide alcohol to minors, and require school districts to put in place anti-bullying and school-safety plans. He has also called for community prosecution, and has paired state prosecutors with police personnel in Providence Police Department's neighborhood precincts with the goal of timely prosecution of drug crimes, robbery, and assault.

Lynch has hung a plaque in his office with a quote from Spider-Man, "With great power comes great responsibility." Lynch said he got the inspiration for the plaque from his son, who said it before his inauguration in 2003.

The Station nightclub fire

One of Lynch's first responsibilities as attorney general was to oversee the criminal investigation of the February 20, 2003, Station nightclub fire in West Warwick. With 100 deaths and many more injuries, the fire was the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history and the second-deadliest fire ever in Rhode Island, trailing only the USS Bennington fire that claimed 103 lives in the 1950s. The criminal investigation led to the sentencing of Daniel Biechele, the tour manager of the band whose pyrotechnics started the fire, and also resulted in no-contest pleas by the two co-owners of the nightclub.

Lead paint lawsuit

Lynch has also continued to pursue a lawsuit against lead paint manufactures that was initiated by Whitehouse, his predecessor. The initial lawsuit ended in a mistrial while Whitehouse was in office. Lynch won a second lawsuit against Sherwin Williams Co., NL Industries, and Millennium Holdings, LLC., all former lead paint manufacturers. Another company, Atlantic Richfield Co., was acquitted by the jury. The case was closely monitored by other states and municipalities interested in whether former lead paint manufacturers are liable for problems their products caused after they stopped manufacturing it.

DuPont Co. settled out of court in June 2005, agreeing to pay $12 million to the Children's Health Forum. The agency agreed to use the money for lead paint abatement efforts and education campaigns. Lynch has since been criticized for accepting $4,250 in contributions from DuPont lawyers and lobbyists, and his opponent in the 2006 elections filed a complaint with the Rhode Island Ethics Commission. Lynch has denied that the donations were related to the lawsuit, and a lawyer for DuPont who accounted (with his wife) for $2,500 of the donations called the complaint "rubbish."

Lynch has also been criticized for the arrangement his office made with the law firm Motley Rice, which prosecuted the case. The firm agreed to cover the costs of the case in return for 16 ²⁄₃ percent of whatever damages the company won. Critics have charged that this kind of relationship between law firm and government is improper because the law firms stand to benefit from a guilty verdict.

2008 Presidential race: Endorsement of Barack Obama

Lynch was the second of the only two superdelegates in Rhode Island to publicly endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary on February 9, 2008. The first being Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy on January 28, 2008. Ultimately, Barack Obama lost the Rhode Island Democratic primary on March 4, 2008 to Hillary Clinton.

Gubernatorial campaign

On May 22, 2009, Lynch announced his candidacy for Governor of Rhode Island in the 2010 gubernatorial election.

On August 6, 2009, Lynch was warned by the State Board of Elections that he needed to more carefully disclose his campaign spending. At issue was some $9,000 in petty cash transactions that were not properly documented. The State Board of Elections did not fine Lynch whose campaign filed corrected paperwork amidst being confronted with the issue. The complaint was filed by the Rhode Island Republican Party.

On July 15, 2010, Lynch announced his exit from the Governors race, and endorsed fellow Democrat Frank Caprio. In his statement, Lynch said: "I did not enter public service to become a footnote in history by injuring my party, resulting in the election of a governor who is not equipped to guide our wonderful State into the future it deserves."

Current Activities

Since leaving his post as attorney general, he has been accused of lobbying his former office several times on behalf of topics such as online gambling and Google Search engine practices via his firm the Patrick Lynch Group. Whilst he has never registered with the state as a lobbyist, he denies that his communications with the office of current Attorney General constitute lobbying.

Additionally, he is a member of a law and consulting firm, Patrick Lynch Law

Election history

2006 General Election

2002 General Election