The Virginia Informer

Last Updated:11/4/09 Section: News

Government and law professor Tommy Norment has recently come under scrutiny for his dual employment at the College of William and Mary and in Richmond, where he serves as a Virginia state senator. Mr. Norment, who has been a member of the House of Delegates since 1992, joined the William and Mary faculty in the summer of 2008. He receives $160,000 annually for his work at the College. As a member of the Virginia senate finance committee, Mr. Norment has sponsored a bill allocating nearly $20 million to the College.

In addition to his four-credit course load, Mr. Norment also provides legal advice to the College administration, though the extent of his duties as a legal advisor is unclear. William and Mary president Taylor Reveley has defended his decision to employ Mr. Norment, saying that the state senator has a real and important function at the College. "The work Senator Norment does as a William & Mary employee is substantive and demanding," Mr. Reveley said in a press release. "From the beginning of his time at William & Mary, the Senator has provided me with legal counsel," he added. "He continues to do so while also now working closely with our Coordinator of Legal Affairs."

Former Board of Visitors member Paul Jost, however, is severely critical of Mr. Norment's employment by the College. "It's bad," he said. "There are all kinds of things that are bad about it." Mr. Jost ran in a closely contested campaign for state senate in 2003, but he was ultimately defeated by Mr. Norment in the Republican primary.

Mr. Jost suspects that Mr. Norment took the teaching position at the College as a way of increasing his pension. Pensions in Virginia are based on an employee's three consecutive highest-paid years of employment. By accepting employment at William and Mary, Mr. Norment has increased his state salary by $160,000, to a total of $178,000. Mr. Norment has denied that the increase in his pension played an important role in his decision to take the job.

Mr. Jost also believes that Mr. Norment's salary of $160,000 per year from the College is unusually high. "A full professor with tenure in the government department makes $110,000 per year," Mr. Jost said.

Regardless of the role that Mr. Norment may play as a legal advisor, Mr. Jost holds that it is unnecessary for the College to employ any more legal councilors. "Does the College really need another lawyer when we have all these folks at the Attorney General's office who are for the most part prime lawyers?"

Brian Whitson, a representative of the College's office of University Relations, has defended Mr. Norment's employment. "Senator Norment has provided valuable counsel to the president's office on many occasions in his role as a legal advisor," Mr. Whitson said. It is unknown, however, how many times Mr. Norment has actually met with the administration. "It's not the sort of the thing we keep record of," Mr. Whitson said, "and even if we did, discussions and working papers between the president and his advisors are not the sort of information we distribute."

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