January 28, 1998
To: Corporate Services Committee
From: H.W.O. Doyle
Lead Solicitor
Subject: Retention of Outside Counsel
Purpose:
The purpose of this report is to seek authority from Council to retain the law firms of Reble, Ritchie, Green & Ketcheson, and Loopstra, Nixon & McLeish to complete legal work, provided to the former City of Etobicoke and the Borough of East York, already in progress, and to provide supplementary legal services related to work originating from the aforementioned former municipalities, as deemed appropriate by the Lead Solicitor.
Funding Sources, Financial Implications and Impact Statement:
On a combined basis, the seven municipalities amalgamated into the new City of Toronto expended approximately $4.0 million annually for outside legal services. As part of a budget reduction exercise for the Transition Team and subsequently the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, the Legal Services Review Team, consisting of the Solicitors for all of the old municipalities, recommended a reduction of $1,646.0 million in estimated outside counsel expenditures to achieve in part the Corporate budget reduction target for 1998, and to reduce reliance on external providers by using in-house resources for routine legal matters. Sufficient funds remain in the proposed consolidated legal services operating budget=s outside counsel account to retain the two law firms in addition to meeting the projected 1998 financial obligations of the City of Toronto to other law firms currently retained to complete work in progress for the former cities and borough.
Recommendations:
It is recommended that:
a) the law firm of Reble, Ritchie, Green & Ketcheson be retained for a maximum of 12 months, retroactive to January 1, 1998, to complete matters for which they currently have carriage on behalf of the former City of Etobicoke, in addition to providing supplementary legal services as deemed appropriate by the Lead Solicitor;
b) the Lead Solicitor report back to Council in the last quarter of the year on the transition of legal work from Reble, Ritchie, Green & Ketcheson to Legal Services staff, and the continued retention of the firm in 1999 ;
c) authority be granted to enter into a retainer agreement with Reble, Ritchie, Green & Ketcheson in a form and content satisfactory to the Lead Solicitor for an amount not to exceed $930,000.00;
d) the law firm of Loopstra, Nixon and McLeish be retained for a maximum of 12 months, retroactive to January 1, 1998, to complete of matters for which they currently have carriage on behalf of the former Borough of East York, in addition to providing supplementary legal services as deemed appropriate by the Lead Solicitor;
e) the Lead Solicitor report back to Council in the last quarter of this year on the transition of legal work from Loopstra, Nixon, and McLeish to Legal Services staff, and the continued retention of the firm in 1999 ;
f) authority be granted to enter into a retainer agreement with Loopstra, Nixon, and McLeish in a form and content satisfactory to the Lead Solicitor for an amount not to exceed $312,000.00;
g) the appropriate City Officials be authorized and directed to take the necessary action to give effect thereto.
Council Reference/Background/History:
Reble, Ritchie, Green & Ketcheson:
For many years the former City of Etobicoke has received legal services from a private law firm. In the past 17 years, the firm of Reble, Ritchie, Green & Ketcheson (formerly Reble, Townend) has provided all legal services for the former City with the exception of employment law work which was undertaken by the law firm of Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie.
The law firm of Reble, Ritchie is managing currently an active case load of 1,012 files on behalf of the former City. These files include prosecutions, tax collections, real estate and general files for all departments of the former municipality.
The firm employs the equivalent of 3 lawyers, 2 secretaries and 1 law clerk to undertake legal work for the former City.
To effect the efficient completion of legal work already in progress, and to facilitate the smooth transition of new work to the City of Toronto Legal Services, it is recommended that the Lead Solicitor be granted authority to enter into a retainer agreement with the firm of Reble, Ritchie, Green & Ketcheson for the period not to exceed 12 months, retroactive to January 1, 1998, for an amount not to exceed $930,000.00. It is further recommended that the Lead Solicitor report back to Council in the last quarter of this year on the transition of legal work from Reble, Ritchie, Green & Ketcheson to City of Toronto Legal staff, and the continued retention of the firm in 1999.
Loopstra, Nixon & McLeish:
The firm of Loopstra, Nixon & McLeish was appointed as counsel to the former Borough of East York by by-law in 1986. The firm is currently working on an active East York case load of 461 files including matters dealing with by-law enforcement, building code prosecutions, encroachment issues, engineering, planning & development matters, real estate, general litigation and various other issues.
The firm estimates that it employs the equivalent of 2 full time lawyers, a part-time law clerk or articling student, plus two full-time legal secretaries to undertake work on behalf of the former Borough of East York.
To ensure the efficient completion of work already in progress, and to facilitate the smooth transition of new work to the City of Toronto Legal Services, it is recommended that the Lead Solicitor be granted authority to enter into a retainer agreement with the firm of Loopstra, Nixon and McLeish for the period not to exceed 12 months, retroactive to January 1, 1998, for an amount not to exceed $312,000.00.
It is further recommended that the Lead Solicitor report back to Council in the last quarter of this year on the transition of legal work from the firm to City of Toronto Legal Services, and the continued retention of the firm in 1999.
Comments and/or Discussion and/or Justification:
The Solicitors Review Team, consisting of the head solicitors for each of the former cities, borough and metropolitan government, in its report to the Transition Team recommended that the new City of Toronto employ a mix of in-house and outside legal resources as the most cost efficient method for providing legal services to the new City of Toronto. The Solicitors Team recommended a re-allocation and refocus of total resources as a result of the amalgamation of legal services , as follows:
a) a reduction on the reliance of external providers for routine matters;
b) an enhancement of internal expertise in areas such as labour and employment law, environmental law and negligence defence where some of the old municipalities relied exclusively on external providers, and ;
c) a refocus of external providers to deal with highly specialized practice areas and periods of peak demands.
Since the outside law firms have been actively involved in the matters currently being handled by them for the former City of Etobicoke and Borough of East York, and keeping in mind that a restructuring process will be undertaken to consolidate legal services in the coming months, it is my recommendation that these firms complete the work being done at present by them, and that the need for any further legal services being provided to the City of Toronto, upon completion of such work, be the subject of a further report to Council in the latter quarter of this year.
Conclusion:
The retention of the two firms will allow for the completion of work currently in progress, and facilitate a smooth transition to the new City of Toronto Legal Services.
Contact Name:
H.W.O. Doyle 392-8040
H.W.O. Doyle
Lead Solicitor
Legal Services
