Doxx has taken a consulting job at a personal injury law firm that often has sued Cook County, creating a potential conflict of interest if she is elected state's attorney in November.
If Foxx prevails as expected in the heavily Democratic county, she would be in charge of an office that has defended and settled lawsuits filed against the county by Power Rogers & Smith, a firm whose lawyers have contributed $18,500 to her campaign fund.
Foxx's campaign declined to make the candidate available for an interview. Campaign spokesman Robert Foley said the law firm hired Foxx in a "consulting capacity" and that she is not working on any cases involving city or county government.
Foley did not say how much Foxx is being paid by the firm or when she started there. Nor did he answer whether Foxx working at the firm constitutes a conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriety. And he did not say what steps Foxx would take if elected to make sure cases filed by Power Rogers & Smith are not treated differently by her office, given her employment at the firm.
Foley asked for a list of questions and received them, but instead of answering, he emailed a statement.
"Kim is a career attorney who spent over a decade in the courtroom as a prosecutor. After resigning from her position in Cook County government, she began working as a consultant on a variety of legal issues — none of her work involves Cook County," the statement read.
Power, Rogers & Smith has sued the county numerous times, and some of the cases the firm brought proved lucrative. For example, the county this year paid out $6 million to settle a suit with the family of a Dolton teenager who was run over and killed by a car being chased by sheriff's police.
The firm's website lists other verdicts and settlements. Among them: a $3 million settlement in a 2000 medical malpractice suit against Cook County Hospital and a $3.1 million verdict in a medical negligence case the same year against Cook County.
The attorney in the Dolton suit and the medical negligence case was Larry Rogers Jr., a partner at the law firm who also is paid $100,000 a year as an elected commissioner of the county Board of Review, which considers property tax appeal cases.
Reached Thursday, Rogers said Foxx was not working for him at the tax appeals agency. Asked whether Foxx was working in any capacity at his law firm, Rogers said, "What now?" Then he said he had another call to take, adding that he would call a reporter back before hanging up. Rogers did not call back, and he did not return subsequent phone messages left for him.
On Friday, another one of the firm's partners, Devon Bruce, emailed to say Rogers was "in a meeting now and told me you were asking about Kim Foxx."
Bruce, who has contributed $8,500 to Foxx's campaign fund this year, included a statement. "Kim Foxx is a seasoned attorney with valuable insight and experience who has worked with our firm as a consultant," the statement read.
All told, the firm's attorneys have given $18,500 to Foxx's political fund this year, including $1,000 from Rogers. The money came during the heat of the Democratic state's attorney primary, except for $2,500 that Bruce gave last month.
Lawsuits filed against the county by Power Rogers & Smith recently have drawn some fire.
County Commissioner Richard Boykin, D-Oak Park, has been trying to change the ethics code in light of cases filed by Rogers or his law firm against the county. The measure would bar any county official from representing someone who sues the county.
Foxx resigned last year from a $181,867-per-year job as chief of staff to County Board President Toni Preckwinkle to run against State's Attorney Anita Alvarez in the March Democratic primary. Foxx easily won and now faces Republican Christopher Pfannkuche in the November general election.
In November 2014, Foxx and husband, Kelley, bought a home in south suburban Flossmoor for $365,000, according to county property records. At the time they owned a home in west suburban Westchester, which property records show the couple still owns. In an interview earlier this year, Foxx said she and her husband rent out the home.
Foxx also said her husband is an executive with an insurance company. On his LinkedIn page, Kelley Foxx describes himself a "sales executive-Public Entity Division-Risk Advisory Solutions" with Horton Group.
In November 2015, as she filed to run for state's attorney, Foxx declared she had no conflicts of interest on her statement of economic interests, including the question about whether she rendered any professional services from any businesses exceeding $5,000.
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