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Committee approves risk‑management contract increase and hears concerns about long-running legal settlements
Summary
The committee approved an administrative recommendation to increase a risk-management legal contract for appellate and reverse-conviction work and members questioned the pace and cumulative costs of settlements and indemnifications across city litigation.
The Internal Operations Standing Committee approved a recommendation to increase a risk-management contract with Plunkett Cooney, PC by $507,000 on May 7 to cover appellate and reverse-conviction matters. Committee members also discussed the volume and multi-year nature of litigation and indemnification requests the city is handling.
Attorney Graham Anderson of the law department told the committee that five of the matters covered by the Plunkett Cooney contract are appellate matters and that reverse-conviction work is slow and expensive. He characterized the matters as "very high stakes" and said specialized outside counsel is necessary for the work.
Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway asked for perspective on the number of matters pending and the settlement pace; law department staff said a previous set of matters had been whittled down and that eight matters remained with Plunkett. Callaway pressed whether there could be a final timeline; committee members noted the litigation has been active for several years and that while progress has been made, appellate and reverse-conviction cases can extend across many years.
The committee sent the contract increase to the formal agenda with a recommendation to approve. Members recorded concerns about cumulative legal costs and asked law and risk-management staff to continue to provide periodic updates on settlements, pending matters and the scope of external counsel work.
