AUGUSTA – Gov. Paul LePage has hired a former police officer and top prosecutor for Kennebec and Somerset counties to serve as his chief legal counsel.

Brent Davis is the sixth chief counsel hired by the Republican governor since he took office in 2011.

Davis is filling a position that has been vacant since Avery Day left LePage’s staff to return to private practice in December 2016.

Before joining the administration, Davis served as first assistant district attorney in the Somerset and Kennebec County District Attorney’s Office. Since 2006, he has focused on litigation in Somerset Superior Court. From 2000 to 2006, he served as assistant district attorney handling cases in Skowhegan District Court and Superior Court.

Davis also is a member of the Governor’s Judicial Selection Committee.

Before he went to law school, Davis was a law enforcement officer from 1993 to 1999 with the Rockport Police Department. He also previously worked with the Cianbro Corporation as a pipe welder.

Davis is a 2000 graduate of University of Maine School of Law. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Maine and an associate degree in criminal justice from University of Maine Augusta.

LePage has appointed two of his former chief counsels to the bench. Daniel Billings is now a Superior Court justice in Lincoln County, and Cynthia Montgomery is a District Court judge in Portland. Another former LePage attorney, Carlisle McLean, was appointed by LePage to serve on the Maine Public Utilities Commission. And Mike Cianchette, another former LePage attorney, was a naval officer who deployed to Afghanistan and returned to work in the private sector.

Turnover in the chief legal counsel post is not unusual. LePage’s predecessor, Democrat John Baldacci, hired five attorneys during his two terms.