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Corporation counsel: staffing cuts prompted greater use of outside counsel and paper-only appellate filings
Summary
Sue, the citys corporation counsel, said attorney vacancies and budget changes have reduced in-house bench strength, prompting the department to hire outside firms for major trials and to submit appellate matters on the papers rather than send counsel for oral argument in routine appeals.
Sue, the citys corporation counsel, told the council that staffing reductions and vacancies have reduced the departments in-house bench strength for major trials and appellate work, increasing reliance on outside counsel and changing the offices appellate practice.
When asked about attorney counts, Sue explained some positions were removed in the budgeting process and the office is currently down several attorneys compared with prior years. "We are definitely down a few attorneys. There are some vacancies," she said, adding that vacancies were removed as part of budget balancing.
Sue said the department tries to keep work in-house when possible because it is more cost-effective, but it turns to outside counsel for significant trial work "because we don't have that much bench when it comes to significant trial work like that." To build bench strength, the office often pairs a junior in-house attorney with outside counsel so the in-house lawyer receives mentoring while the firm bills for trial work.
On appellate practice, Sue described a recent decision about the tax-exempt status of Shine in the Appellate Division. Because the office was short staffed, she elected not to travel for oral argument and instead filed on the papers. "All of our papers are fully briefed," she said. "We are comfortable with them, and we have started making decisions in my office about oral argument at the Appellate Division... Otherwise, we are taking this position that we'll submit on our papers." She said the office will send counsel for argument only when a nuanced or unique legal issue makes oral advocacy necessary.
Budget implication: Sue said outside counsel fees fluctuate depending on staffing and that fewer in-house attorneys typically means more reliance on paid external firms. Committee members and staff discussed numbers for how many positions were cut or left vacant; transcript comments varied between being down three and four attorneys compared with prior years and indicated some ambiguity in the printed budget versus current vacancies.
Whats next: Staffing levels, outside counsel expenditures and the offices appellate practices were raised as budgetary concerns to monitor during the citys budget process.
