Career status attorneys as full-time employees -- Completion of outside law practice

(1) Attorneys in a career status shall be full-time employees and shall not engage in the private practice of law and shall not receive any fee for legal services rendered to any person, corporation, partnership, or other legal entity other than the state or the county in which the person holds office or by whom the person is employed. The practice of law prohibited by this subsection does not include pro bono service. (2) Attorneys on probationary status who have not been granted career service status may, in the discretion of the attorney general, be granted permission to complete or handle legal matters previously begun before employment with the attorney general's office, but may not begin new matters once employed. Once career service status is conferred, the attorney is bound by the provisions of Subsection (1). (3) The provisions of this section shall not apply to special assistant attorneys general retained on a fee basis to render services in connection with a single case or a related series of cases.