Published: January 13, 2009 01:39 pm      

New Attorney General says he’s ready to serve Hoosiers

INDIANAPOLIS — Greg Zoeller, a New Albany native and former Clarksville resident, said Monday that only his wedding day and the births of his children provided better moments for him than being sworn in as Indiana’s attorney general.

“This is one of the greatest days of my life,” Zoeller said.

He thanked many people, including his wife, son, and daughters. He also said he feels blessed to be able to serve the public in this capacity.

“Since law school, I’ve felt my career was more of a vocation than an occupation,” Zoeller said.

Zoeller also mentioned his service in Washington, D.C., as Dan Quayle’s assistant and said that he still draws on his time there and uses his experiences to serve the public now.

He has spent time as the chief deputy to Attorney General Steve Carter. Zoeller said that experience would serve him well as the state’s chief law enforcement official.

“During the past seven years in the office of the attorney general, I have had a unique opportunity that no other attorney general has had before me, the experience of working with the lawyers and others in state government who serve our state every day. These experiences have helped prepare me for the full commitment to service required by the role of attorney general,” Zoeller said.

He also discussed the patron saint of lawyers, Thomas More, and the concept of an attorney general as a “servant-lawyer”.

“Taking the oath of office comes with my pledge to serve to the best of my ability in the role of ‘servant-lawyer’ and to earn and maintain the trust of all Hoosiers,” he said.

With an office of 140 lawyers, Zoeller plans to make the services of the office of the office more available to the residents of Indiana’s 92 counties. He said he also wants Hoosiers to have more access to the services of the attorney general’s office at local courthouses.

“With a bad economy, there’s going to be people hurting and one of the things we have to recognize is that unfortunately people come and prey on those who are in trouble. Things like consumer scams and a lot of the things where people are trying to take advantage of the vulnerable — that’s one of the things we have to be on guard against,” he said in an interview immediately after the inauguration.

— Renee Bruck is a journalist for Franklin College.