CHARLESTON - Virginia's former attorney general has written an opinion piece in a Washington-based legal newspaper that criticizes the way West Virginia AG Darrell McGraw's office appoints outside attorneys as special assistant AGs. In the July 10 issue of Legal Times, Jerry Kilgore wrote an article titled "Outsourcing the State AG" in which he writes that he worries that "too much authority is being turned over to outside lawyers" by state AGs. Kilgore says the trend of AGs using private attorneys "increasingly threatens the independence of the attorney general and creates a conflict between public benefit and private profit." He also says this work "should be done by the attorney general's office." "I am concerned that these relationships with plaintiffs lawyers may raise serious ethical questions, involve the transfer of huge sums of money, and undermine the integrity and independence the attorney general's office," Kilgore writes.