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Friday, June 11, 2004
Indiana Law - City school corporation saves money with in-house attorney
"FWCS trims legal bills with in-house lawyer: District saves $320,000 in a year’s time," is the headline to this story today in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. Some quotes:
Fort Wayne Community Schools’ plan to save money in legal expenses by paying more for an in-house attorney has paid off.The district saved nearly $320,000 in legal expenses in 2003 after it dropped attorney Georgia Hartman, who was paid about $90,000 a year, and hired Bill Sweet at about $250,000 a year. As in-house attorneys, both have handled litigation, employee relations and other legal matters for the district.
A year ago, then-Superintendent Thomas Fowler-Finn predicted FWCS would save $100,000 or more in legal fees by hiring Sweet as a member of the staff because he was already doing work for the district. Although Hartman was the district’s full-time attorney, many other lawyers, including Sweet, were hired to help with the district’s various legal issues.
In 2002, FWCS spent $779,640 on legal work, 80 percent of which went to outside attorneys. Last year, the district paid $460,269 in legal expenses, with more than half paying the salaries, benefits, secretaries and materials for in-house attorneys.
“In 2003, we went down substantially in the grand total,” Chief Financial Officer Kathy Friend said. “We’re trying to do the same thing for 2004.”
So far this year, the district has spent $190,708 on legal work with about 70 percent being in-house costs. The district still hires outside attorneys to handle some of its cases and specialty areas, such as real estate law.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 11, 2004 08:06 AM
Posted to Indiana Law