Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said he has agreed to bring in outside legal counsel to help him if the state gets sued over the new anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution.

Shurtleff's willingness to go along with the wishes of some of his most outspoken opponents in the Legislature should make it easier for him to get his own bills passed this session, a package that includes a hefty pay increase for the 200-plus attorneys in his office.

"I want to work with these guys," the attorney general said in an interview a few days before the start of the 2005 Legislature scheduled Monday. "If you talk to most of them, they'll say, 'We're comfortable.' Gov. Huntsman has said it."

The attorney general said he already has a good relationship with the state's new governor. Unlike former Gov. Mike Leavitt, who once went eight months without talking to Shurtleff, Huntsman is involving the attorney general in his administration.

"It's been very open, lots of meetings, lots of phone calls. It's been a very close working relationship," Shurtleff said of the new governor. For example, he said he was personally invited by Huntsman to attend the first meeting of the governor's new Cabinet.

It was during Shurtleff's campaign for re-election last year that he found himself in trouble with lawmakers. The attorney general, who easily won a second term, urged voters to reject the anti-gay marriage amendment even though he personally opposes same-sex unions.

Shurtleff called Amendment 3, which originated with the Legislature, "a bad law" that should be defeated by voters because it "goes too far" in forbidding granting "the same or substantially equivalent legal effect" as marriage to other relationships.

That enraged some supporters of the amendment, who questioned whether the attorney general could be trusted to aggressively defend it should the state be sued. Shurtleff still intends to lead any legal battle but has agreed to accept the help of outside legal counsel.

So far, though, the attorney general said there appears to be no immediate threat of legal action against the amendment, which was approved by voters by a margin of 2 to 1 despite his concerns.

Shurtleff said he is continuing to try to find a way to avoid such future fights by getting involved earlier in legislation that may pose potential legal problems for the state to see if those can be avoid.

"There's still not a natural, built-in process" for the attorney general to work with the Legislature on bills his office may have to defend, Shurtleff said, although more lawmakers are approaching him now to review their bills.

If there are still hard feelings among some of the lawmakers, they could surface as Shurtleff pushes his agenda. He said he's heard some talk there may be retaliation for his stand, possibly against his pay raise proposal.