Everett's legal bills | HeraldNet.com

Lawsuits. Environmental regulations. Contracts. Everett faces many complex matters. So it employs seven civil attorneys and a risk manager and routinely has spent more than a $1 million a year on outside legal help. City Attorney Jim Iles said his office tries to handle everything it can in-house. B

ut they don’t have the time or expertise to handle everything. Here’s a look at the city’s spending on outside private lawyers over the past 11 years:
11-year total: $16,579,669; average per year: $1,507,242

“Like most legal firms, ours reaches a point where we need expertise in areas and if we don’t have that expertise or an issue is extremely complicated, that’s when we go to outside counsel,” Iles said.

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The addition of three assistant city attorneys lessened the need to hire outside lawyers in 2009 and 2010. Today the city’s civil division employs a city attorney, six assistant city attorneys, a risk manager and an administrative assistant. In 2010, salaries and benefits totaled $1,080,882.

But with outside private lawyers charging the city more than $400 an hour, even dashing off an email or reading a fax quickly becomes pricey. Below is a selection of line items from attorney bills.

Examples of Everett legal billings

	Amount	Hours	Firm	Description
July 13, 2009	$25.00	0.10	Anderson Hunter Law Firm	Civil attorney’s bill for reviewing a fax.
April 2, 2009	$25.00	0.10	Michael Mirande	Preparation for a meeting with a councilman about the Tulalip Tribes.
Oct. 16, 2009	$27.50	0.10	Christie Law Group	“Analyze” a phone call from a Herald reporter.
June 3, 2009	$80.00	0.50	Newton Kight	Attend meeting regarding the Kidstage theater program.
Sept. 16, 2009	$137.50	0.50	Anderson Hunter Law Firm	Exchanging emails with Everett’s risk manager in the city legal department.
March 25, 2010	$157.50	0.70	Anderson Hunter Law Firm	Attend a monthly Civil Service meeting and advise the city attorney on whether reporters should receive a meeting agenda.
March 29, 2009	$162.00	0.60	AMS Law	Telephone conference with city spokeswoman about a labor investigation at the Fire Department.
Sept. 2, 2009	$330.00	1.20	Christie Law Group	Briefing for the Everett City Council.
July 2009	$442.50	1.50	Law Office of Karen Willie	Bill for a month of leaving voicemails, checking emails and “chasing” down another attorney.
2009	$3,579.75	16.65	Anderson Hunter Law Firm	A month’s work on “general matters,” including Civil Service meetings and a public hearing by the Public Works department.
2009	$5,130.00	10.80	Hillis Clark Martin and Peterson Law Offices	For reviewing contracts with Tethys Enterprises, which for a time wanted to use Everett water for a bottling plant.
2009	$5,461.00	13.00	Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis	Studying environmental issues on a planned multimillion-dollar development by the Snohomish River.
September 2009	$10,762.00	46.40	Christie Law Group	Analysis, research and advice for city attorneys on the police shooting of Niles Meservey.
2009	$77,903.00	231.00	Stoel Rives	To fight lawsuits from neighbors unhappy about the expansion of Providence Regional Medical Center Everett.
2009-10	$458,035.00	1,480.46	Perkins Coie; Hillis Clark Martin and Peterson Law Offices; Christie Law Group; Allen, Hansen & Maybrown	Billings from the four firms hired to handle litigation and labor issues from the police shooting of Niles Meservey.
2000-10	$732,123.00		Thomas Mortimer Jr.	For regular, expert advice on water rights, water contracts and the Snohomish River Regional Water Authority.