Moore hires his own lawyer

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.