State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s office consulted with former attorney general candidate and longtime labor lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan in 2023 as the Methuen Democrat pursued an initial audit of the Legislature, according to public records obtained by the Herald.

The State Auditor’s Office did not enter into a formal contract with Liss-Riordan and her firm, Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C., but instead sought “legal advice and assistance” in connection to DiZoglio’s audit of the House and Senate that was released in October, the records show.

The Office of the State Auditor acknowledged the correspondence in a detailed list of records they withheld from public release under the claim of attorney-client privilege.

The withheld records included multiple email threads from July 2023 between Liss-Riordan, labor lawyer Matthew Carrieri, and DiZoglio’s top deputies, including General Counsel Michael Leung-Tat, Executive Deputy Auditor Steve Lisauskas, and Senior Director Lauren Donoghue.

In a letter responding to a Herald records request, Leung-Tat said the relationship between the State’s Auditor’s Office and Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C., “was and continues to be prospective in nature and no formal contractual relationship exists.”

“However, attorney-client privilege applies not just to existing clients but also to prospective clients with whom a formal attorney-client relationship is never established,” Leung-Tat said.

In a statement sent Tuesday, Leung-Tat did not disclose the exact legal advice Liss-Riordan and her firm offered but said the State Auditor’s Office has not “engaged” with them since and no costs were incurred by taxpayers.

“The OSA prospectively engaged with Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C. in 2023, seeking legal advice regarding our then-ongoing efforts to audit the Legislature (the audit was issued in October 2024) and our authority to audit the Legislature under G.L. c. 11, s. 12 (prior to its amendment via the passage of ballot question one in November 2024),” Leung-Tat said.

Liss-Riordan declined to comment, citing attorney-client privilege.

The disclosure that DiZoglio’s team briefly turned to an outside attorney as it tried to probe the inner-workings of the Legislature comes as the House and Senate have also used private lawyers amid calls from DiZoglio for legal action to force compliance with a renewed audit.

House Speaker Ron Mariano’s Office said the branch hired CEK Boston as outside counsel on Jan. 9, or just days after the legislative audit law voters approved in November took effect.

A Mariano spokesperson said it is “routine” for state agencies to retain outside counsel when confronted with “novel questions of law.”

Private attorneys, the spokesperson said, will supplement in-house lawyers “in order to ensure that House personnel can remain focused on the legislative session, and on protecting the commonwealth from the most severe impacts of federal policy decisions.”

“The House will not be distracted from its important work by the auditor’s pursuit of a political audit,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the Herald.

The spokesperson did not say how much the House is paying CEK Boston, and public spending records do not show any payments to the firm by the House in 2025. A request for litigation services issued by the House also does not outline potential costs.

Sen. William Brownsberger, who sits on a Senate subcommittee tasked with responding to DiZoglio’s audit attempt, said the Senate works with Attorney Jennifer Miller of Hemenway & Barnes on a “regular basis” and has not retained a different lawyer in response to the legislative audit.

“We always use outside counsel,” the Belmont Democrat told reporters as he left a tense meeting last month between senators and staff from the State Auditor’s Office.

The Senate has shelled out at least $10,400 to Hemenway & Barnes since October 2024, according to public spending records. That is on top of another $13,280 the chamber paid to the firm between October 2023 and July 2024, records show.

Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance spokesman Paul Craney, whose organization backs DiZoglio’s audit efforts, said it is common for politicians to seek “general advice from people all over the place,” including lawyers.

But he cautioned that DiZoglio’s office turning to Liss-Riordan is different from the Legislature’s use of private counsel because Liss-Riordan was not paid for her advice.

“They should never be viewed the same because taxpayers aren’t funding that,” he said. “With Jennifer Miller and (CEK Boston), they’re gonna have a scope of work. They’re gonna have to track their hours. They’re gonna have to comply with Massachusetts laws … There’s a whole process when you retain a lawyer, but if you just get friendly legal advice from a lawyer that’s your friend, that’s completely separate.”

Leung-Tat, the general counsel for the Auditor’s Office, did not say why officials turned to Liss-Riordan and her firm for advice.

The labor lawyer lost to Attorney General Andrea Campbell in the September 2022 Democratic primary for the top law enforcement post in Massachusetts. Liss-Riordan pulled in 34% of the vote compared to Campbell’s 50%, according to state data.

Liss-Riordan was also involved in an unsuccessful effort last year to toss President Donald Trump from the Massachusetts ballot during the presidential election.

DiZoglio’s first attempt at auditing the Legislature focused on the House and Senate’s finances, how lawmakers ensure an “equitable mode of making laws,” how bills are considered, and the application of internal policies and procedures, among other things.

But DiZoglio ran into resistance from legislators, who argued the State Auditor’s Office had no authority to probe the inner-workings of the Legislature and any attempt to do so violated separation of power principles in the state constitution.

The first audit, which DiZoglio’s office started laying the groundwork for shortly after she took office in January 2023, was also conducted before voters approved the legislative audit ballot question championed by the Methuen Democrat.

In the months since the ballot question passed with nearly 72% of the vote, DiZoglio has ramped up public attacks on lawmakers who are either refusing to participate in her second attempt to investigate the two chambers.

She has also tried to publicly pressure Campbell to greenlight a lawsuit against the Legislature to force them to participate in the probe.

Outside groups like the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance have said they too are ready to pursue litigation in an attempt to convince a judge to order the Legislature to take part in an investigation into their internal proceedings.

Craney said the lawsuit from the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, Act on Mass, and the Pioneer Institute is in a “holding pattern” as advocates wait to see what Campbell does in reaction to DiZoglio’s call for litigation.

“As far as that potential lawsuit goes, everything is ready to go,” he said. “I am hopeful in the next few weeks, it could be even a few days, we’ll have more to say on that.”