Tseytlin named state’s first solicitor general (UPDATE)

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Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel has appointed the leader of a new office that has been assigned to helping handle appellate litigation.

Schimel has appointed Misha Tseytlin to the position of solicitor general, according to a news release. Tseytlin is currently general counsel to West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.

He will join the Wisconsin Department of Justice on Nov. 30.

Tseytlin earned his law degree from Georgetown University in 2006. He was a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Kennedy and two judges in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, Calif., and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington, D.C.

DOJ officials asked Gov. Scott Walker to use his state budget to establish the office. Walker’s budget authorized the setting up of a five-person office for the DOJ at a cost of about $1 million over the next two fiscal years but left it up to the DOJ to find the money.

The state’s budget committee later approved a slightly revised plan for the office. It both used money won from prosecuting Medicaid, trust and environmental violations to pay for the office and eliminated four vacant positions within the DOJ.