Mike Moore (U.S. politician)

Mike Moore
Attorney General of Mississippi
In office
January 12, 1988 – January 14, 2004
Governor Ray Mabus
Kirk Fordice
Haley Barbour
Preceded by Ed Pittman
Succeeded by Jim Hood
Personal details
Born (1952-04-03) April 3, 1952
Pascagoula, Mississippi, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Letitia Moore
Children 1
Education University of Mississippi,
Oxford (BA, JD)

Michael Moore (born April 3, 1952) was the Attorney General for the U.S. State of Mississippi from 1988 to 2004. He was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi.[1] In 1994, he filed the first lawsuit against thirteen tobacco companies, claiming that they should reimburse the State for the costs of treating those with smoking-related illnesses. Attorneys General from several other states joined the suit, with Moore as the lead negotiator. The settlement was worth $246 billion to the states, including $4.1 billion for Mississippi. The Michael Mann-directed film The Insider portrays some of the events leading up to this settlement; Moore played himself in the film.[2] Moore received his J.D. in 1979 from the University of Mississippi School of Law. He served as the District Attorney for Pascagoula. In 1997 he was awarded "Lawyer of the Year" by the National Law Journal.[3]

In 1989, during his first term as Attorney General, Moore ran in a special election for the U.S. House of Representatives in the fifth congressional district (today the fourth) following the death of Representative Larkin I. Smith. Despite being the favorite among Democrats, Moore came in third in the initial round of balloting, behind Democratic state Senator Gene Taylor and Republican Tom Anderson. Taylor went on to defeat Anderson in the runoff.

Moore heads Mike Moore Law Firm LLC in Jackson, Mississippi. He serves as the Chairman of the Board for the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi.[4] Initially created to receive funding from a large tobacco settlement won on behalf of Mississippi victims, the court order providing this funding was later vacated after a suit was filed by then-Governor Haley Barbour.[5] Moore sits on the Board of Directors for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and on the Advisory Board of LegalShield.[6]

Moore is currently heading a coalition of states, cities, and counties launching a similar lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies, especially Purdue Pharma, for allegedly misleadingly marketing opioid painkillers, which they contend was a key driver of the current opioid epidemic.[2]

References

  1. ↑ NNDb.com profile; accessed May 8, 2015.
  2. 1 2 Deprez EE, Barrett P (5 October 2017). "The Lawyer Who Beat Big Tobacco Takes On the Opioid Industry Mike Moore made cigarette companies pay for the high cost of treating smokers. Here he comes again". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  3. ↑ Mike Moore profile (pbs.org), Frontline: Inside the Tobacco Deal; accessed May 8, 2015.
  4. ↑ Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi website; accessed May 8, 2015.
  5. ↑ MS Supreme Court Decision, courts.ms.gov; accessed May 8, 2015.
  6. ↑ Board of Directors List, tobaccofreekids.org; accessed May 8, 2015.
Legal offices
Preceded by
Ed Pittman		 Attorney General of Mississippi
1988–2004		 Succeeded by
Jim Hood
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