This Saturday, the National Rifle Association will consider a plan for reforms to end its six-year legal battle with New York and chart a new path forward.
If the NRA can agree to a reform plan, it will then have to present that to Attorney General Letitia James. If they can’t agree on the details, it will be up to Judge Joel Cohen to determine what the final deal will look like. The board will vote on a plan this Saturday, according to a letter from Brewer Attorneys & Counselors, the gun group’s outside counsel.
“The NRA Board will consider its position on potential settlement at its Board meeting on Saturday, September 7, 2024,” Svetlana M. Eisenberg, a Brewer attorney, wrote to Judge Cohen last week. “The Parties will provide a status report to the Court on or before Friday, September 13, 2024.”
The plan may not just culminate six years of legal throes but also its relationship with the Brewer Firm, which has overseen much of its legal strategy during that time. NRA CEO Doug Hamlin has already replaced Brewer with former Solicitor General and current Jones Day partner Noel Francisco in NRA v. Vullo, the group’s First Amendment case against a former New York financial regulator. A source familiar with the discussions told The Reload that the Brewer Firm has offered to terminate its relationship. Several other sources said the firm’s critics on the board planned to try and oust it at the meeting.
NRA leadership has leaned heavily on the Brewer Firm’s advice since 2018 when it claims a New York official tipped it off to a “coming storm” over corruption allegations stemming from its decades-long relationship with its top contractor. What ensued took the 150-year-old organization, once called “the Most Powerful Special Interest In Washington,” through the loss of over a million paying members, heavily publicized internal disputes between decades-long colleagues, a declaration of bankruptcy, a jury finding against it and longtime leader Wayne LaPierre, and Judge Cohen’s ruling against an effort by James to shut down or oversee the group’s operations. After issuing his ruling, Judge Cohen then told James and the NRA to draft details for a series of reforms he wants to see the group implement as part of moving beyond its past mistakes.
The Brewer Firm has continued to represent the NRA during those discussions.
The firm has enjoyed the support of NRA leadership since the beginning of James’ investigation. That support got a boost after the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the gun-rights group in NRA v. Vullo. While the firm didn’t represent the NRA during Supreme Court oral arguments, it did shepherd the case through the lower courts and help get the American Civil Liberties Union on the NRA’s side.
“It’s been a privilege to work with the Brewer firm, the ACLU, Eugene Volokh, Alan Morrison, and others on one of the most important cases to ever confront the NRA.” Charles Cotton, former NRA President and member of the Special Litigation Committee (SLC) overseeing the Brewer contract, told The Reload in reference to Vullo. “I believe the Brewer firm’s strategic counsel and unique brand of advocacy helped us achieve victory – in a case that defines the NRA’s commitment to its members and protecting our nation’s freedoms.”
However, some internal reformers have raised zealous objections to the law firm’s representation, which they’ve criticized as overly expensive. Several board members have also criticized the firm’s close relationship with current and former NRA leaders, including Cotton–who has flown on the firm’s private jets.
“I am concerned about the undue influence that has clearly manifested in the past by vendors and other contractors on our board members or officers in how they make decisions about the NRA’s charitable assets when they’re flying on these jets and everything,” Dennis Fusaro, an NRA board member, told The Reload in May. “I don’t know that it saves the NRA money. I’d like to see the numbers and what the justification is.”
Rocky Marshall, another NRA board member and Brewer critic, testified in July that the NRA had paid the Brewer firm over $180 million in legal fees across multiple cases during the past six years. That was the most it paid any outside organization over the same time period.
The SLC, which includes current NRA President Bob Barr and longtime board member David Coy alongside Cotton, defended their decision to spend that sum on Brewer’s counsel. It noted the total amount reflected the firm’s work on multiple cases as well as spending on expert witnesses. It said anyone who doubted Brewer’s defense of the NRA is “either misinformed or our enemies.”
“The NRA faced an unprecedented series of attacks, as our enemies sought to destroy the organization and the freedoms we defend. Fortunately, we chose the Brewer firm to defend us,” the committee told The Reload. “The firm has handled dozens of matters for the NRA over a period of several years and achieved extraordinary results – for more than $50 million less than what is erroneously being publicly reported. In any event, payments to the firm are and have been disclosed in public tax filings.”
The Attorney General’s office sought to exploit internal dissension over the Brewer firm throughout the trial. Its lawyers tried multiple times to put the firm’s bills on the record during its well-publicized case and invoked the firm multiple times in the closing arguments of both trial phases.
The NRA’s board meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 am central on Saturday at the Omni Hotel in Los Colinas, Texas. It is open to NRA members. Regardless of the outcome, these events mark both a new phase for the NRA and the turning of its possibly most dynamic chapter.
UPDATE 9-6-2024 6:46 PM EASTERN: This piece has been updated with comment from the NRA’s Special Litigation Committee.
