Barry Pollack. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

Barry Pollack is engaged these days in an improbable balancing act for a criminal defense lawyer—asking state prosecutors to investigate criminal claims against one client, Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, while hoping to keep another client, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, away from U.S. prosecutors' jurisdiction entirely.

The Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber partner sent letters this week to prosecutors in Virginia, Massachusetts and North Carolina, asking them to investigate sexual misconduct claims made by Vanessa Tyson and Meredith Watson against Fairfax, who has remained in office amid the accusations but is on leave from the partnership at Morrison & Foerster.

“Fundamental fairness requires that when a person makes a serious criminal allegation in the most public way possible, as Dr. Tyson has done, an objective and thorough investigation of that allegations should be conducted, and the results reported to the public,” Pollack wrote in a letter to assistant Suffolk County, Virginia, District Attorney Ian Polumbaum first obtained by ABC. “Just as no serious crime should go unprosecuted, no innocent person should have his reputation tarnished by a false allegation.”

Fairfax had already announced in April that he was inviting prosecutors to investigate the claims against him.

Pollack said in an email to The National Law Journal on Thursday that Fairfax had hired him in March to “advise him with respect to his efforts to get law enforcement to conduct a full, fair, and impartial investigation of these allegations.”

Fairfax previously retained Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz partner Rakesh Kilaru in January 2018, as reporters dug into Fairfax's alleged misdeeds, and Kilaru was continuing to advise the lieutenant governor at least into February 2019. Pollack said Thursday that he is Fairfax's “only counsel with respect to engaging with law enforcement authorities.” Kilaru did not respond to requests for comment on whether he still represents Fairfax in any capacity.

Pollack switched firms in D.C. last year, joining litigation boutique Robbins Russell from Miller & Chevalier, though he's been representing Julian Assange through his own firm, not through Robbins Russell. British home secretary Sajid Javid told the BBC on Thursday that he signed a request for Assange to be extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges in the Eastern District of Virginia.

When Assange was arrested in London in April, Pollack labeled the arrest “bitterly disappointing” and called the extradition request by the United States unjustified.

“First and foremost, we hope that the U.K. will now give Mr. Assange access to proper health care, which he has been denied for seven years,” Pollack said in a statement at the time. “Once his health care needs have been addressed, the U.K. courts will need to resolve what appears to be an unprecedented effort by the United States seeking to extradite a foreign journalist to face criminal charges for publishing truthful information.”

Assange is expected to face a court hearing overseas on Friday regarding the U.S. extradition demand.

Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that Fairfax addressed his request for an investigation to state, not federal prosecutors.