Gov. Bobby Jindal has agreed to spend $830,000 in public funds on his two failed legal cases fighting the Common Core academic standards in state and federal court.

Receiving the bulk of those funds -- $600,000 worth -- is a familiar face in Jindal's many legal challenges over the years: His former executive counsel Jimmy Faircloth. The Alexandria attorney is handling both the state and federal suits, each of which are now being appealed after suffering defeat.

Two additional law firms received payments to work on the Common Core lawsuit filed in state court. The Long Law Firm, of Baton Rouge, was paid $200,000 and John Murphy, of Morain & Murphy in Baton Rouge, was paid $30,000 for their work, according to legal contracts.

A Jindal administration spokesman defended the payments for the firms' legal work, the amounts of which had not been previously disclosed by the administration.

"This is a typical practice across state government," Mike Reed, a spokesman for the Jindal administration, wrote in an email. "Outside counsel is needed when the individual has special expertise in certain areas of the law."

It's possible Jindal's fight over Common Core will end up costing the state even more than $830,000 over time. Legal fees in a separate Common Core lawsuit filed by legislators were not included in the initial estimate. The appeals of the state and federal lawsuits may also end up being more expensive, according to Faircloth.

"I really don't know. I hope not," said Faircloth, when asked if the appeals would add to the legal fees associated with the suits already.

Jindal helped implement Common Core in Louisiana, but turned against the standards in the summer of 2014 as a national conservative backlash against the academic benchmarks gained steam.

Now, he plays up his opposition and legal fight over Common Core in his presidential campaign. Common Core supporters have accused the governor of using the lawsuits to his political advantage, generating publicity for his national campaign.

"In every way you could analyze it, it's a waste of money," said Chas Roemer, president of Louisiana's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. "It seems to be to the benefit of one person and his politics."

Initially, the two Common Core lawsuits weren't expected to cost Louisiana as much money. When they got underway in the summer of 2014, legal fees for the lawsuits were expected to total around $275,000.

Most of the Common Core lawyer contracts were amended multiple times over the last year to increase the amount paid out to outside counsel. For example, Louisiana initially agreed to pay Faircloth just $50,000 for his work on Jindal's federal Common Core lawsuit in August of 2014. This past July, the state adjusted Faircloth's contract to pay him up to $475,000 for the case.

Faircloth's agreements to work on the federal and state lawsuits were also amended to help the state save some money at one point. In the initial contracts, Faircloth's team could bill the state for 15 minutes of work, even if they had worked for less time. The documents were changed to require the lawyers to charge Louisiana for just six minutes of work, if they were worked on the case for a smaller increment of time.

Faircloth has been the Jindal administration's go-to lawyer on cases involving school vouchers, teacher pay, LSU and other areas of state government since he left the Jindal administration three years ago. In 2013, the Associated Press reported Faircloth's law firm had received $1.1 million in no-bid legal contract work from Jindal and his appointees in state government.

Faircloth said the cost of federal court fight over Common Core ballooned, in part because of the need for legal experts and out-of-state depositions. In the lawsuit, Jindal has accused President Barack Obama's administration of forcing Common Core on states like Louisiana.

"The experts in that case ... cost $70,000 that my firm advanced. It literally involved depositions in Washington and Chicago," Faircloth said.

Three weeks ago, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick sided with the Obama administration. Education experts had predicted Jindal would lose the case. Faircloth is already working on the appeal.

It's not clear whether Faircloth's firm has actually been paid the full $600,000 for his work on the two Common Core lawsuits yet. The lawyer has until July of 2016 to submit more charges to the state on the two lawsuits, but Faircloth said much of that money has already been spent, particularly in the federal case.

"What you are seeing is not for work moving forward. It is for work that has already been done," Faircloth said of the contracts.

It's possible state lawmakers have some control over Faircloth's existing Common Core contracts. His financial agreements with the state say the Louisiana Legislature oversees the contracts for Faircloth's legal work. Louisiana also has a right to cancel the agreements "due to budgetary reductions and changes in funding priorities by the state."

Legislators are likely to be particularly sensitive to the costs of the suits, given Louisiana is in the midst of a financial crisis. The Legislature expects it will have to find a way to close a midyear budget shortfall that will total well over $100 million in the next few months.

Also, most state lawmakers don't share Jindal's fervor for getting Common Core out of Louisiana schools. The Legislature refused to pass bills pushed by the governor to fully repeal Common Core last spring.

Instead, lawmakers agreed to undertake a more methodical review process of the academic standards that will either lead to them being tweaked or thrown out altogether. With that review already underway, some legislators question why Louisiana is still spending money on lawsuits to attack Common Core at this point.

"It would be my preference to move on," said state Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, who had supported Common Core in the past. "I think we have kind of moved past this issue."

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that legal contracts had been amended to benefit Faircloth by allowing him to charge the state for small increments of work. Those amendments to the contracts were changed in a way that benefitted the state by requiring smaller payments on incremental work.

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Julia O'Donoghue is a state politics reporter based in Baton Rouge. She can be reached at jodonoghue@nola.com or on Twitter at @jsodonoghue. Please consider following us on Facebook at NOLA.com.