I. Beverly Lake Jr. has joined the Shanahan Law Group.

The former chief justice of the state Supreme Court will be a senior counsel at the Raleigh law firm, handling general corporate representation as well as litigation and appellate cases.

"Justice Lake is widely respected in legal, political and business circles throughout our state, and we are fortunate to have him on our team," said firm founder Kieran Shanahan.

A graduate of Wake Forest University's law school, Lake served two terms in the state Senate, ran for governor as the Republican nominee in 1980 and served on the Supreme Court from 1992 to 2006, when he was required to step down because of his age.

Richard Moore is hiring his own attorney on a public records lawsuit.

The state treasurer asked Attorney General Roy Cooper for permission not to use state attorneys to represent him in a lawsuit filed by the State Employees Association of North Carolina over a public records request about the state pension fund.

Under state law, the attorney general must approve the hiring of outside counsel.

Cooper approved the request Friday and took special deputy attorneys general Melissa Trippe and Alec Peters off the lawsuit, according to spokeswoman Noelle Talley.

"It's fairly unusual," she said. "But in this case, there was a strong difference of opinion between our office and theirs about how to proceed."

Moore has since hired the Shanahan Law Group, a Raleigh firm that specializes in business and governmental litigation.

Talley would not elaborate on the disagreement.

"That's all we're going to say at this point," she said.