Former Attorney General Shurtleff starts new consulting business

Just days after parting ways with an international law firm, former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has started his own government-relations business.

Shurtleff announced on his Facebook page that he had formed The Shurtleff Group, a Washington, D.C.-based firm, effective June 1.

On his Twitter account, Shurtleff reported over the weekend that he was attending the Republican State Leadership Committee meeting in Mackinac Island, in upstate Michigan, where he was representing the Entertainment Software Association.

ESA represents the video-game industry and contributed money to Shurtleff's campaigns for attorney general.

As a three-term attorney general, Shurtleff touted the organization's self-imposed ratings and opposed efforts to penalize retailers that sell violent video games to minors. His office joined nine other states to argue against a violent video game ban when it went before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Shurtleff said last week that he had resigned his position with the law firm Troutman Sanders, saying the travel and demands of the job were taxing on his family.

Shurtleff declined to comment on his new venture.

He is part of a wide-ranging investigation by federal, state and county authorities into allegations that he and his handpicked successor, John Swallow, abused their office.

Robert Gehrke