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Nampa legal asks for additional staff attorney as in-house workload approaches last year’s external billable hours
Summary
City Attorney Preston Leonard said the in-house legal team is absorbing a high volume of work, approaching the prior year’s external counsel hours within four months, and requested a staff attorney to reduce reliance on outside counsel while noting the consolidation of risk management under legal.
Preston Leonard, the city’s lead attorney, told council that moving legal work in-house has increased workload and that an additional staff attorney is requested in the FY26 budget to address volumes and reduce—but not eliminate—external counsel costs.
Leonard said last year outside counsel billed about 1,575 hours through the Boort and Lakey firm. He said the combined in-house and outside-counsel workload in the current year has reached nearly 1,200 hours through four months, “approaching what last year entire legal did in a 12 month period.” He told the council that his office currently has limited in-house capacity and relies on outside counsel for about 10 hours a week (about a quarter of a full-time equivalent in his characterization).
Leonard described priorities including contract review, procurement and risk exposure mitigation. Mayor and staff noted consolidation of risk management into the legal budget to align procurement, contracts and legal review; the city will keep a paralegal in place and seek to add one staff attorney in FY26, which staff said would reduce some external counsel spending but not eliminate the need for specialized outside counsel.
Discussion versus decision: the presentation was informational and budgetary; staff will include a request for one additional staff attorney in the proposed legal budget. No action was taken at the workshop.
Ending: council leadership praised Leonard and staff for quickly standing up in-house legal services and acknowledged additional attorney capacity would help manage turnaround times and reduce external spend.
