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House to scrutinize law firm's hefty billings

Florida House Speaker Allan Bense has ordered an investigation of $4.5-million the state paid a Tampa law firm.

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published February 26, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - For two years, a Tampa law firm reaped the rewards of its relationship with then-Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd.

Broad & Cassel billed taxpayers $4.5-million for legal work. Now Byrd is out of office and the firm's hefty billings face fresh scrutiny by Byrd's successor, Rep. Allan Bense, R-Panama City.

In an extraordinary step, Bense has ordered an investigation of the amount of money the firm was paid under his predecessor.

"If I were a taxpayer, I would want to make sure that the bills were scrutinized," Bense said. "I have no reason to suspect there's anything wrong, none whatsoever. But that's a lot of money in a short period of time."

Most of the money paid to Broad & Cassel was for defending two lawsuits filed by Hayes E-Government Resources, which accused the House of refusing to pay for a Web-based computer system.

The cases lasted nearly two years, until Bense and Hayes settled both lawsuits last week. The state will pay Hayes $3.75-million.

Records show Broad & Cassel's fees and expenses in the two computer cases total nearly $3.8-million, more than the cost of the settlement.

Bense asked two lawyers who serve in the House, Republican Dudley Goodlette of Naples and Democrat Jack Seiler of Fort Lauderdale, to study Broad & Cassel's invoices over a period of 27 months.

Seiler said he would compare the time entries on Broad & Cassel's invoices with dates of hearings, motions and other developments in the case. Seiler said the central question is: "Did we overpay?"

"The bills seem pretty substantial, and I'm always concerned about bills that may exceed the actual value of the claim," Seiler said.

Broad & Cassel's Tampa managing partner, Steve Burton, landeded the lucrative contract as Byrd, a lawyer from Plant City, was about to become speaker.

The two men were friends. Burton donated $10,000 to a political committee that promoted Byrd's campaign for speaker, and Byrd appointed Burton, a University of South Florida trustee, to help oversee a new Alzheimer's research center on the USF campus.

Byrd later turned to Burton for advice in seeking to overturn a telephone rate increase, and Byrd appointed Burton to a board overseeing the ill-fated high-speed rail project.

Byrd said he was worried about the reliability of a computer system he inherited, and he trusted Burton to make changes. Burton gave a no-bid contract to Jagged Peak of Clearwater to take over the House computer system. Jagged Peak already was a client of Broad & Cassel's.

Hayes said it was not being paid and sued the House in March 2003, accusing Byrd of playing politics by firing Hayes and replacing it with a firm represented by his friend's firm.

Burton said he welcomed the scrutiny. "I don't have any problem with that at all," he said.

Burton called the cases "very contentious, very technical and very involved." He cited 31 court hearings, more than 60 depositions and more than 110,000 technical documents.

As Byrd promoted fiscal conservatism and railed against greedy lawyers, the monthly billings at Broad & Cassel swelled into the millions. The firm sometimes sent four lawyers to the same hearing.

Last month, Bense's office quietly ended Burton's legal work for the House. A letter from deputy general counsel Deborah Kearney said: "Some of the cases in which the House is being represented by your firm can be handled by other, more economical means."

Broad & Cassel may not now be in favor now, but it is planning for the future: It hired Bense's designated successor for its Miami office.

Rep. Marco Rubio, a Miami Republican, is in line to be speaker in 2006.

"We're very happy to have him," Burton said.

[Last modified February 26, 2005, 01:14:15]