Fetal tissue inquiry costs UNM more than $600K
Officials say expense necessary to protect university, employees
University of New Mexico racked up more than $600,000 in legal bills as it navigated a special congressional committee’s investigation into how it procured fetal tissue for research purposes, expenses officials say were necessary to protect the university and its employees.
UNM used the Chicagobased law firm McDermott Will & Emery, spending a total of $611,446 over a two-year period on what the invoices call the “fetal tissue inquiry,” according to documents provided to the Journal through a public records request. The firm’s work on the matter commenced in January 2016, three months after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to convene the “select investigative panel” to probe fetal tissue transfers and related matters. Federal law prohibits the sale of fetal tissue.
The Republican-led committee’s $1.5 million investigation ultimately alleged that UNM
violated state law in obtaining fetal tissue from Southwestern Women’s Options — an allegation denounced by the Democratic members who represented the panel’s minority.
The committee sent what it called “criminal referrals” to New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas in June 2016. Balderas announced earlier this year that his office’s review found that UNM had not broken the law.
The same referrals were sent to the FBI headquarters and the bureau’s relevant field offices “for review and any action deemed appropriate,” according to a December 2017 letter from a U.S. Department of Justice official to U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce.
Pearce, who represents New Mexico’s southern congressional district and is running for governor, had last September asked U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to “investigate wrongdoings” between UNM and SWWO, according to his congressional website.
But a UNM Health Sciences Center spokeswoman told the Journal last week that the FBI has never contacted the university as part of a fetal tissue investigation. The partially redacted McDermott invoices provided to the Journal do not mention interactions with the FBI.
McDermott’s last billable activity on the fetal tissue inquiry occurred on Jan. 29, 2018, according to the invoices.
UNM’s fetal tissue research has attracted intense scrutiny from anti-abortion activists, and safety is one reason UNM says it considered it necessary to spend money on specialized counsel. UNM also lacked internal experience dealing with Congress, UNM spokeswoman Alex Sanchez said, noting McDermott’s help “preparing, presenting and meeting the expectations” of the panel.
More than 100 pages of invoices show the firm’s work on UNM’s behalf included communicating with the congressional panel and its staff (often dealing separately with the committee’s “majority” and “minority”); reviewing, preparing and redacting documents to submit to the panel; corresponding with and providing information to Balderas’ office; and helping UNM respond to media inquiries. Bills show regular coordination with UNM’s in-house attorneys and that the firm also updated UNM’s Board of Regents on the work.
“Appearing before Congress is an area that we at the HSC are not as familiar with and we needed assistance from trained professionals,” Sanchez wrote in an emailed response to Journal questions. “As you are aware, fetal tissue research is controversial. No matter which side of the debate one falls on, there can be an incredible learning curve to understanding the research, its value and its place in medical advancements.
“There are also real threats that have had deadly consequences all over the world to researchers and doctors in this area. We believe in being as transparent as possible while also protecting our faculty and staff. We sought counsel to help us prepare for our congressional hearings, ensure we were communicating effectively and efficiently, and provide as much information as we could without jeopardizing the safety of our employees.”
Most of the McDermott expenses accrued in early 2016, with invoices from March through July of that year totalling $424,017.
Sanchez said HSC covered the McDermott bills from its general budget.
UNM’s Health Sciences Center — which includes UNM Hospital, Sandoval Regional Medical Center, UNM Medical Group and some academic units — has a total annual budget of about $2 billion.
“HSC leadership is always thoughtful about expenditures and believe strongly that outside counsel was necessary to protect the interests of the University as well as the researchers and staff working in this field of study,” Sanchez wrote.
The $611,446 total does not include the legal fees associated with an investigation some UNM regents initiated in the summer of 2016.
UNM paid Sutin Thayer & Browne, a private Albuquerque law firm, nearly $43,000 for “advice and counsel regarding issues of compliance within federal law” including fetal tissue law.
The Sutin firm never produced a written report of its findings, and UNM heavily redacted the related billing documents released through a public records request. Regent President Rob Doughty, who signed the engagement letter and to whose private law firm all bills were addressed, said UNM’s in-house attorneys related Sutin’s findings directly to the Board of Regents in lieu of a written report, and that they characterized Sutin’s five-month investigation as “inconclusive.”
Doughty said to his knowledge Sutin did not find any evidence that UNM was breaking federal fetal tissue laws.
“UNM legal counsel did not indicate to us that Sutin found that kind of evidence,” Doughty said in a written response to Journal questions.
UNM is not currently doing any fetal tissue research.
Dr. Paul Roth, UNM’s health sciences chancellor, in June permanently barred Dr. Robin Ohls from conducting fetal tissue research after two internal investigations found she violated UNM policies in her collaboration with a Michigan company to which she was sending fetal tissue.
The policies related to internal approvals and documentation. But UNM said neither investigation found any evidence she broke any laws, and Ohls remains at UNM, where she continues to conduct clinical research and treat newborns as a neonatologist.
Ohls was the only researcher using fetal tissue at UNM at the time. However, UNM says it remains possible that another researcher could utilize fetal tissue in the future.