(Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

Crowell & Moring on Thursday became the latest major law firm to establish a state attorneys general practice group, pushing back against states that have become more aggressive in using their oversight, investigative and enforcement powers.

Clayton Friedman, who is leaving the partnership at Sidley Austin to lead Crowell's new state attorneys general enforcement and investigations practice, said companies often don't know how to manage an investigation by government regulators.

But he said the "biggest mistake" a company can make is treating state AGs—whose wide suite of enforcement and investigatory powers includes the ability to issue temporary restraining orders, cease-and-desist orders and civil investigative orders—like private plaintiffs in court.

"The rules are completely different, and the stakes can be quite a bit higher," said Friedman, who was an assistant Missouri attorney general for 10 years, starting in 1984, and who also served as chief counsel and director of business regulation for the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington, D.C.

Friedman is joining Crowell as a partner in its Orange County, California, office. Also joining the office as a partner from Sidley is Michael Yaghi, who has defended companies against both state and federal regulators. The new practice group includes 14 Crowell lawyers and takes on clients nationally.

Crowell is joining an increasingly crowded field of firms with practices explicitly geared toward state AG actions. In October, O'Melveny & Myers launched its own group with Kamala Harris' former policy chief; in September, Blank Rome brought on a high-ranking official from the Pennsylvania attorney general's office. Cozen O'Connor, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, Squire Patton Boggs, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, King & Spalding and Alston & Bird have all established groups as well.

Friedman attributed the rise in state enforcement to Republican presidents scaling back federal government enforcement starting in the 1980s. But state AGs never ceded that power even when Democrats such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were in power, he added.

"They keep climbing the mountain. They're never coming down," Friedman said. "It's not like all of a sudden you're going to see a wave of conservative enforcement that slows the AGs back down."

Friedman isn't the only practice leader who thinks this way. Daniel Suvor, one of the co-leads of O'Melveny's state attorney general practice group, said in October he is not expecting pressure from either Democratic or Republican attorneys general to let up: "I think that's probably a fact of life now."

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