Facing legislative rejection, attorney Wood quits Alaska Judicial Council

Longtime Alaska Attorney John W. Wood, 79, whose confirmation by the Legislature was in serious trouble, has resigned from the Alaska Judicial Council.

Members of the council are called on to evaluate whether candidates for the court system are fit to serve as judges.

There were three major reasons he was likely to be rejected by the Legislature for a six-year term on the council, one of the few commissions in state government created in the Alaska Constitution.

First, he was convicted in 1993 of failing to file his federal income taxes in 1987. On Feb. 10, 1995, the Alaska Supreme Court publicly censured Wood as a result of his conviction.

Not long after he was censured by the Alaska Supreme Court, he closed his law office and stopped paying his dues to the Alaska Bar Association. He has been a suspended attorney since 2000 because he has not paid his dues. He could practice law again by paying his back dues.

Second, he is an attorney, which means he was not eligible under the Alaska Constitution to fill the “non attorney” seat that his longtime associate, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, appointed him to last May. Dunleavy claimed that Wood is not an attorney.

Wood’s license is suspended, but he remains on the rolls of the Alaska Bar Association as a suspended attorney.

When Dunleavy appointed Wood to the fish board in 2019, Wood did not claim to be a non-attorney. He said he had been a member of the Alaska Bar since 1972.

Attorney Wood submitted a resume in which he said he was an attorney who used to have a private law practice. Here is that document.

Third, the Constitution prohibits members of the Alaska Judicial Council from holding a “position of profit” with the state or federal governments.

Attorney Wood is getting $300 an hour from Dunleavy for the kind of work that is usually performed by attorneys. Wood worked for Dunleavy when the latter was in the Legislature.

Wood has been the recipient of a series of five no-bid contracts from Dunleavy that have been his major source of income under this governor, handling duties often performed by attorneys. His total compensation from the no-bid Dunleavy contracts could end up close to $1 million.

Dunleavy claimed that because Wood was getting no-bid contracts and did not hold an official state job, his was not a “position of profit.” With the series of no-bid Dunleavy contracts Wood has been on the payroll in what is clearly a position of profit.

On these three major points and others, Wood would have faced difficult questions at his confirmation hearings next week.

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