Richard Moore has some high-profile help.

Former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake is in the Wake County courtroom where a Superior Court judge is hearing Moore's attorney's motion to dismiss a lawsuit by the State Employees Association of North Carolina.

It's something of an odd-couple mix. 

Moore is a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination this year. Lake is a former Democrat who switched to the Republican Party to run unsuccessfully for governor in 1980.

(Come to think of it, maybe they do have something in common.)

The explanation is fairly simple, however. Lake recently joined the Raleigh law practice of Kieran Shanahan, whom Moore hired to represent him in the lawsuit.

So far, Lake has not spoken in court, but he no doubt helped shape many of the legal arguments being made by Moore's attorneys.

An attorney for Richard Moore said a proposal by a state workers' group "set off alarms."

Standing before Wake County Superior Court Judge Jim Hardin this morning, Raleigh attorney Kieran Shanahan said that he was surprised by an alleged proposal from an attorney for the State Employees Association of North Carolina to drop a lawsuit in exchange for Moore's support of a bill.

In a motion, Shanahan argued that SEANC attorney Tom Harris tried to bribe them in a phone call and a subsequent e-mail to him.

"It became clear that their political motivation for bringing the suit was to somehow effect policy-making and laws," he said, adding later, "It is outrageous, it is offensive and it's in violation of the law."

Shanahan said he felt "duty bound" to report Harris' alleged proposal to the judge as well as the North Carolina Bar under the "rules of professional responsibility."

He also echoed earlier arguments in the case that SEANC's attorneys have failed to identify any public records that Moore's office failed to produce in response to a request last year.

SEANC has said that the case is not politically motivated.