Republican Party of New Mexico
08/15/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/15/2026 12:36
Kane: Torrez Sends New Mexico’s Money — and New Mexico’s Legal Work — Out of State
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IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 12, 2026 Up to $68 million from the Meta verdict is headed to a South Carolina law firm. It's the latest example of an Attorney General more focused on national headlines than New Mexico's own lawyers, or New Mexicans. LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Attorney General candidate Sam Kane today called on Raúl Torrez to explain why, after promising in his 2022 campaign to rebuild his office's in-house litigation capacity and rely on outside law firms only in rare circumstances, he handed New Mexico's marquee consumer case to a plaintiffs' firm based nearly 2,000 miles away. According to reporting in the Albuquerque Journal, Motley Rice, a South Carolina litigation firm, stands to collect as much as $68 million in contingency fees from the $942 million in verdicts against Meta. That money will leave New Mexico's economy and go to out-of-state trial lawyers, rather than funding in-house capacity at the Department of Justice or going to New Mexico-based firms who could have done the same work. "Raúl Torrez told voters in 2022 he'd stop outsourcing New Mexico's legal work to firms from out of state," Kane said. "He didn't do it. Instead, he brought in a South Carolina law firm and is about to hand them a check for up to $68 million. That's $68 million that isn't going to a New Mexico firm, isn't building New Mexico legal talent, and isn't accountable to New Mexico taxpayers." Kane said the arrangement fits a pattern: an Attorney General who treats the office as a platform for his own national profile rather than a tool built around New Mexico and New Mexicans. "Every time Raúl Torrez has a choice between what serves New Mexico and what serves Raúl Torrez, he picks himself," Kane said. "He renamed his own office after the federal Department of Justice. He's used it to insert New Mexico into fight after fight with Washington. And now we learn he's routing tens of millions of dollars in legal fees to a firm in South Carolina instead of building the kind of in-house office he promised voters four years ago. New Mexicans deserve an Attorney General whose loyalty is to New Mexico, not to his own résumé." Kane, a Las Cruces attorney, noted that New Mexico has no shortage of capable lawyers who could have handled the litigation, and that keeping the work and the fees in-state would have meant more legal jobs, more institutional expertise, and more dollars staying in New Mexico's economy-and not just that. "When fees of that magnitude go to lawyers in New Mexico, a great deal of it gets donated or reinvested into the local community-sporting events, high school programs, and various charitable causes." "If I'm Attorney General, when New Mexico needs outside help, we hire New Mexicans first," Kane said. "We build the in-house team Torrez promised and never delivered. And when there's a $68 million fee on the table, it should be paying New Mexico lawyers and rebuilding New Mexico's own Department of Justice-not funding a law firm in Charleston." Kane also pointed to the broader pattern of outside money flowing into Torrez's own campaign, including maximum contributions from out-of-state trial lawyers and mass-tort firms, saying it raises the same basic question voters should ask about the Meta case: who is New Mexico's Attorney General actually working for? About Sam Kane: Sam Kane is a Las Cruces attorney running for New Mexico Attorney General. Kane is running on a platform of protecting New Mexicans' privacy and civil rights, holding data centers and utility companies accountable for driving up New Mexicans' water and power costs, and restoring an Attorney General's office that answers to the people of New Mexico, and no one else. ### |
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