The general counsel of poultry giant Perdue Incorporated learned a hard lesson this week—that if the governor is an old law school chum, then watch out for those e-mails that can be subject to public information requests.

A Washington, D.C.-based environmental group called Food & Water Watch has accused Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and Perdue GC Herbert Frerichs Jr. of having a “cozy relationship,” after the group made a Public Information Act request for all correspondence between the governor’s office and the poultry company.

In some 70 pages of e-mails, dating from July 2010 through November 2011 and reproduced on the group’s website, the GC and the governor discuss various issues relating to Perdue, such as proposals to generate energy from burning poultry manure.

O’Malley also sought Frerichs’ help in overcoming opposition among poultry-industry officials to his plan for putting a commercial wind farm off Ocean City. And the governor wanted to know why Perdue, based in Salisbury, Maryland, didn’t like the state’s agriculture secretary, Buddy Hance.

Frerichs responded, “I just feel like I’m trying to push a bunch of stuff and I don’t see him around. He’s not as strong as his counterparts in DE and VA. I work w[ith] all three.”

O’Malley replied: “I’m guessing you don’t have the personal e-mail of governors of DE or VA, so let me know when Buddy can/should be doing more to help you push stuff. I’m serious. I’ll have him call you Monday.”

The governor also sought Frerichs’ advice on how to soothe company chairman Jim Perdue’s ruffled feathers over comments, made by the governor’s then-press secretary, that poultry companies need to help in cleaning up the pollution in Chesapeake Bay. Frerichs had e-mailed O’Malley that his spokesman’s comments upset Perdue.

Frerichs, who is also a partner with the Venable law firm in Baltimore while serving as Perdue’s GC, declined comment through a spokesperson.

But Perdue spokesperson Julie DeYoung told CorpCounsel.com in a prepared statement, “It’s no secret that Governor O’Malley and Herb Frerichs have known each other since attending law school together (at the University of Maryland) and have a personal and professional relationship. Government affairs are managed through the general counsel office at Perdue; the e-mails simply show him doing his job.”

Food & Water Watch’s Wenonah Hauter wrote in her blog post that the e-mails “paint a portrait of a head of state who walks on eggshells around the chicken industry.”

And not to let any fowl pun go unused, Hauter claimed that the governor is “henpecked” by Perdue on poultry issues.

In one e-mail exchange, O’Malley and Frerichs discussed the need for a law school clinic to provide legal assistance to farmers. But apparently not at their alma mater, the University of Maryland.

Perdue is a defendant in a lawsuit brought by the University of Maryland’s environmental law clinic, accusing the company of polluting a bay tributary. O’Malley wrote a letter to the school’s dean criticizing its involvement and saying it ought to be defending the farm family instead of suing it.

Frerichs then e-mailed O’Malley a note that said, “very nice” on the day the governor’s letter appeared in news reports.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore Sun reported that around the time these e-mails began, Perdue shifted its political giving from the Republican Governor’s Association to the Democratic Governor’s Association, which O’Malley chairs.

In addition, Frerichs’ law firm announced in March that Peter O’Malley, the governor’s brother and then-chief of staff for the mayor of Baltimore, was joining Venable as of counsel in the firm’s Baltimore office. He focuses on—you guessed it—government relations.

O’Malley, for his part, has favored Frerichs by appointing him last year to the board of directors of the Maryland Economic Development Corporation and to the appellate judicial nominating committee from 2007 to 2011, according to Frerichs’ Venable website bio.