LA utility seeks independent legal representation

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's Board of Commissioners asked City Attorney Mike Feuer to remove three assistant city attorneys from their role representing the department in various legal matters, "due to apparent conflicts of interest involving city lawyers."

LADWP President Cynthia McClain-Hill sent Feuer a letter Monday formally requesting his office's authorization to engage independent attorneys to represent the department on legal matters currently under investigation by the FBI and Department of Justice, including an overbilling class action that has been a stain on the city attorney's office for years.

McClain-Hill requested the removal of the three assistant city attorneys from their role as legal representatives of the department based on a court-ordered investigation that found several lawyers in and out of the city attorney's office engaged in a collusive scheme to defraud the court and taxpayers. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was copied on McClain-Hill's letter to Feuer.

"The Board of Commissioners must have complete confidence in the legal advice and recommendations it receives from the lawyers engaged to protect and defend the interests of the LADWP and its customers," McClain- Hill said in a statement Tuesday. "Facts brought to light in recent investigations into the handling of the customer class action and related litigation by outside counsel and some direct staff members managed by the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney leave us no choice but to engage independent legal counsel to eliminate conflicts of interest that compromise the interest of the department and the people we serve."

The DOJ announced earlier this month that special counsel to the city, Paul O. Paradis of the New York law firm Paradis Law Group, and former LADWP General Manager David H. Wright had agreed to plead guilty to engaging in a massive bribery scheme involving millions of dollars in kickbacks and no-bid contracts.

Paradis, who agreed to plead guilty to bribery a week before Wright did, admitted to receiving a nearly $2.2 million kickback from an opposing attorney in a water overbilling lawsuit against the city, his client in another lawsuit. That lawsuit, brought by water customer Antwon Jones, has been mired in controversy after it was revealed Paradis had secretly colluded with opposing counsel to settle the case in record time and without discovery. Antwon Jones v. City of Los Angeles, BC577267 (L.A. Sup. Ct., April 1, 2015).

The LADWP board said it wants Feuer to also remove the three assistant attorneys currently working on the Jones case but it does not mention the attorneys by name.

Responding Tuesday, Los Angeles attorney Brian S. Kabateck of Kabateck LLP, said he was concerned that removing the attorneys could slow the settlement process in the Jones suit, which has already been delayed for years by the scandal.

"They seem to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, which worries me," Kabateck said. "I'm not specifically sure which three attorneys they are referring to but I've seen nothing in the conduct of the current lawyers that are attached to the DWP case, that makes me believe they need to be removed, in fact that may cause further delays in trying to resolve this case."

Kabateck took over the case after it was revealed that former class counsel, now deceased Ohio lawyer Jack Landskroner, was colluding with Paradis. Kabateck has overseen the implementation of a nearly $100 million settlement.

The LADWP board is expected to call for a series of ethics-based corrective actions that would "redefine and govern the relationship between the department and the legal representation provided to the department by way of the City Charter and any city-authorized outside counsel engaged by the department" during a board meeting last week, according to Tuesday's statement.

"Among the additional ethics measures to be introduced in a board motion is a strict prohibition against any counsel representing the LADWP from offering or providing contracted professional services to the LADWP while under contract to represent the department on legal matters and against any future professional services being contracted for any attorney that relates to the subject of their legal representation," the board said in a statement.

Responding to a request for comment Tuesday, Communications Director Rob Wilcox of the city attorney's office said, "Our office received the LADWP Commission Chair's letter yesterday, we are reviewing it and will be responding this week."