LSU System's top lawyer resigns amid upheaval - KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The LSU System's top lawyer announced Thursday that he is resigning from the job, amid a continued shake-up of system leadership since Gov. Bobby Jindal's appointees took control of the system governing board.

Ray Lamonica said he was quitting his position as general counsel, effective Friday. He will return to teaching at the university law school.

Lamonica, a former U.S. attorney who has been the university system's chief lawyer for more than 10 years, gave no reason for leaving in the announcement and didn't respond to a request for comment.

"In light of our discussions, please consider this my resignation as General Counsel for the LSU System, effective Sept. 7, 2012," Lamonica wrote in his resignation letter to Hank Danos, chairman of the LSU governing board and other university leaders.

The letter didn't explain what the discussions were.

Lamonica's decision to step down comes as Jindal appointees filled all but one position on the LSU Board of Supervisors and as several officials who have clashed with the Republican governor have been ousted.

John Lombardi, who regularly disagreed with the governor's policy decisions, was fired as system president in April after complaints that he didn't work well with lawmakers and Jindal.

Fewer than two weeks ago, the system's top health care leader, Fred Cerise, was ousted from his job after disagreeing with the administration about cuts to the university-run hospital system that cares for the poor and uninsured and that trains most of the state's medical professionals.

LSU announced Wednesday that one of Cerise's top allies also was being replaced.

Interim LSU System President William Jenkins praised Lamonica's time with the system.

"Ray is a distinguished and brilliant attorney who helped lead us through the tough days following Hurricane Katrina and who was instrumental in refining many of the LSU System bylaws and procedures that tightened oversight of LSU System institutions," Jenkins said in a prepared statement.

Lamonica was a leader of the legal team that worked on the agreement to build the new University Academic Medical Center, which will replace the LSU charity hospital heavily damaged after Katrina. An arbitration panel ruled that FEMA owed the state $475 million to replace the hospital that served New Orleans' poor and uninsured, after legal haggling led by Lamonica.

Lamonica was U.S. attorney in the Baton Rouge-based federal court district from 1986 to 1994 and once worked as former Gov. Dave Treen's executive counsel.