NC elections director hired private GOP-linked law firm without board approval
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- NCSBE Executive Director Sam Hayes hired a private lawyer without informing board.
- The lawyer, Phil Strach, has close ties to Republican politicians in North Carolina.
- Hire was made possible by new law and budget appropriations for outside counsel.
Earlier this year, the North Carolina State Board of Elections hired an outside law firm closely tied to Republican politicians to defend it in a court case regarding early voting sites on college campuses.
The hiring, which runs counter to the traditional practice of using lawyers from the attorney general’s office, was not disclosed to board members even though the executive director signed a waiver on the board’s behalf. This waiver was required due to the fact that the firm was suing the board in a variety of other cases.
The News & Observer obtained a copy of that waiver through a public records request.
It shows that Executive Director Sam Hayes — who came into power following Republicans’ takeover of the elections board last year — agreed to waive any conflicts of interest and hire Phillip Strach, of the Nelson Mullins law firm, on Feb. 4.
“Your consent signifies a waiver of any and all conflicts on behalf of other firm clients which may exist in present unrelated matters or could arise in future unrelated matters due to this representation,” the document states, noting that Nelson Mullins was representing clients who were suing the board in at least four separate cases.
Those included a Republican lawsuit seeking to purge the voter rolls of residents lacking certain identifying information.
Invoices provided to the N&O show the board paid $70,524 in total to Nelson Mullins for their work.
Strach, who did not respond to a request for comment, has long been the favored attorney for North Carolina Republicans in election and voting rights litigation. He has defended lawmakers accused of gerrymandering and voter disenfranchisement, as well as Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin, who sought to throw out over 65,000 ballots following his loss in the 2024 state Supreme Court election.
Democrats concerned about hiring lawyer suing the board
In this case, Hayes hired Strach to defend the board in federal court after a group of college students sued over the lack of certain on-campus early voting sites in the 2026 primary election plan.
NC Newsline first reported on Strach’s involvement in that case in February.
The students, who came from Western Carolina University, UNC Greensboro and NC A&T State University, argued that the board’s party-line decision not to approve campus voting sites placed “unnecessary, burdensome, and ultimately unjustifiable obstacles” on students.
A judge ruled against the students in February, siding with Strach and the elections board.
Siobhan Millen and Jeff Carmon, the board’s two Democratic members, told the N&O they were not informed of Strach’s hire or the waiver being signed beforehand.
A spokesperson for the State Board of Elections confirmed that board members were not consulted about the hire, “which is a routine step in legal engagements.”
Millen said she disagreed that it was within Hayes’ purview to sign that waiver.
Carmon said he was surprised by the hire and voiced concerns about it, “especially the appearance it gave with Attorney Strach formerly suing the board on more than one occasion,” he said.
Republican board members Stacy “Four” Eggers and Francis De Luca did not respond to a request for comment. The other Republican on the board, Angela Hawkins, had not yet been appointed when Strach was hired.
New permission to hire outside lawyers
The board’s ability to hire outside counsel is new, having been included in Senate Bill 382, a wide-ranging power shift bill passed by Republicans in 2024 that sought to strip authority from newly elected Democrats.
And in one of last year’s “mini-budgets,” state lawmakers appropriated $1.5 million to the board for “future litigation needs.”
Asked why lawmakers felt it necessary to provide money for outside counsel, Senate leader Phil Berger blamed current Democratic Attorney General Jeff Jackson, and the Democrats who preceded him in the position, including Gov. Josh Stein and former Gov. Roy Cooper.
“The attorney general has taken a position that, at times, is at odds with the position that the client would like to take,” Berger told reporters on Tuesday. “We just feel it’s very important for the client to have the ability to direct what their counsel does, and it wouldn’t be necessary if the attorney general, in my opinion, would act as other attorneys do and follow the directions of their clients.”
A spokesperson for the state Department of Justice, which the attorney general leads, declined to comment.
A spokesperson for the State Board of Elections said Strach has not been hired for further legal work since the early voting sites case.
