The Los Angeles Metropolis Council on Wednesday authorised a fivefold enhance to its contract with a legislation agency that drew heated criticism for the invoices it submitted in a excessive stakes homelessness case.
Three months in the past, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher billed town $1.8 million for 2 weeks of authorized work, with 15 of its attorneys billing almost $1,300 per hour. By August 8, the price of the agency’s work had jumped to $3.2 million.
The value tag infuriated some on the council, who identified that that they had authorised a three-year contract capped at $900,000 — and particularly had requested for common updates on the case.
Regardless of these considerations, the council voted 10-3 Wednesday to extend the agency’s contract to almost $5 million for the present fiscal 12 months, which ends in June 2026. Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky supported the transfer, saying Gibson Dunn’s work has been “important to defending town’s pursuits.”
“On the identical time, we put new oversight in place to make sure any further funding requests come again to council earlier than extra money is allotted,” mentioned Yaroslavsky, who heads the council’s finances committee.
Councilmembers Tim McOsker, Adrin Nazarian and Nithya Raman voted in opposition to the contract enhance.
McOsker, who additionally sits on the finances committee, mentioned he was not glad with Gibson Dunn’s effort to reduce the quantity it’s charging town. After the council requested for the price to be decreased, the agency shaved $210,000 off of the invoice, he mentioned.
“I feel Gibson ought to have given up extra, and will have been pressed to surrender extra,” McOsker mentioned after the vote.
A Gibson Dunn legal professional who heads up the staff that represents town didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. In the meantime, an aide to Metropolis Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto welcomed the council’s vote.
“We’re happy that the Metropolis Council acknowledges and appreciates the sturdy authorized illustration that Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has offered and continues to supply to town,” mentioned Karen Richardson, a spokesperson for Feldstein Soto, in a press release.
Gibson Dunn was retained by town in mid-Might, one week earlier than a significant listening to within the case filed by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a nonprofit group that has been at odds with town over its dealing with of the homelessness disaster since 2020.
The town reached a settlement with the L.A. Alliance in 2022, agreeing to create 12,915 homeless shelter beds or different housing alternatives. Since then, the L.A. Alliance has repeatedly accused town of failing to adjust to the phrases of the settlement settlement.
In Might, a federal decide overseeing the settlement referred to as a seven-day listening to to find out whether or not he ought to take authority over town’s homelessness packages from Mayor Karen Bass and the Metropolis Council, and hand them over to a 3rd occasion. Alliance attorneys mentioned throughout these proceedings that they wished to name Bass and two council members to testify.
Within the run-up to that listening to, town employed Gibson Dunn, a powerhouse legislation agency that secured a landmark Supreme Court docket ruling that upheld legal guidelines prohibiting homeless individuals from tenting in public areas.
Feldstein Soto has praised Gibson Dunn’s work within the L.A. Alliance case, saying the agency helped town retain management over its homelessness packages, whereas additionally preserving Bass and the 2 council members off the stand. She counseled the agency for getting in control on the settlement, mastering a fancy set of coverage issues inside every week.
Feldstein Soto initially hoped to extend the scale of the Gibson Dunn contract to almost $6 million by means of 2027 — solely to be rebuffed by council members sad with the billing scenario. On Wednesday, on the suggestion of the council’s finances committee, the council signed off on almost $5 million over one 12 months.
A portion of that cash will seemingly go towards the submitting of an enchantment of a federal decide’s order within the LA Alliance case, Feldstein Soto mentioned in a memo.
Confronted with lingering criticism from council members, Feldstein Soto agreed to assist with the price of the Gibson Dunn contract, committing $1 million from her workplace’s finances. The council additionally tapped $4 million from town’s “unappropriated steadiness,” an account for funds that haven’t but been allotted.
By transferring the cash to the Gibson Dunn contract, the council depleted a lot of the funding that might have gone to exterior legislation corporations over the present finances 12 months, mentioned McOsker, who referred to as the transfer “dangerous fiscal administration.”
Raman, who heads the council’s homelessness committee, mentioned her dissenting vote wasn’t in regards to the value of the providers charged by Gibson Dunn, however moderately the truth that a lot was spent with out council approval.
“As somebody who’s watching that cash very carefully, I used to be annoyed,” she mentioned. “So my ‘no’ vote was primarily based on that frustration.”
