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Firing lawyer doesn't pay off

The highway agency is budgeting half a million dollars for its interim counsel.

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published January 23, 2007

TAMPA - The Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority was mired in a crisis and needed immediate help with mounting legal troubles.

That was a key reason Rhea Law was hired as the interim general counsel in September, agency officials explained at the time.

On Monday, more than four months after Law was hired, the Expressway Authority voted unanimously to add money to the budget so that Law and her firm, Fowler White, could be paid up to a half-million dollars, if need be.

That total for an interim job is nearly what the agency paid its previous permanent legal counsel, Steve Anderson and his firm, for a year's work. Anderson was fired in late August with little explanation. After the vote, some board members said he had billed too much - about $550,000 in his last year at the agency.

No such complaints were made by board members Monday.

"We were in a crisis, so we had to get somebody," said board member Bob Clark, a critic of Anderson and his bills. "I'm sure she's worth it."

As the first female CEO of a major Florida law firm, Law is active in the business community and is widely regarded as one of the most powerful lawyers in the Tampa Bay area.

Law served on Charlie Crist's transition team after he was elected attorney general, and she was appointed by Gov. Jeb. Bush to the University of South Florida's Board of Trustees in 2001.

When hired, she was to advise the Expressway Authority in daily activities and assist with the governor's investigation into alleged improprieties and a subsequent investigation by the Auditor General's Office. Both investigations questioned the fees the agency paid outside attorneys and consultants.

How the agency decided to hire Law is unclear.

Because the selection was considered an emergency, then-executive director Ralph Mervine and then-board chairman J. Thomas Gibbs didn't seek board approval. They say they don't remember how Law's name came up. The initial contract they negotiated allowed her firm to be paid up to $15,000.

Ten days later, on Sept. 11, the board approved giving Law a longer contract.

"Our agency is presently mired in too many issues," Gibbs said at the meeting. "We will need a guide."

Then-board member Thomas Scott expressed discomfort with the move.

"What is this going to cost?" Scott said at the meeting. "I don't have any information in terms of that."

Law's Sept. 11 agreement letter with the board didn't put a limit on what the agency could pay her firm. It did set a $225-an-hour rate, which is $100 an hour more than what Florida Administrative Code recommends, though less than what Law typically bills.

Florida requires the Attorney General's Office to approve contracts between state agencies and private attorneys. During Monday's meeting, Law questioned whether that applied to the Expressway Authority.

Nonetheless, the agency submitted a request for approval in September. Law said the authority was simply asking whether the attorney general could help cut costs by providing legal services. The office replied that it didn't have the staff. It okayed the contract but said the agency couldn't pay Fowler White more than $100,000 without state approval.

But by the end of October, Fowler White had billed a total of $129,714.

It wasn't until Nov. 16 that the authority requested attorney general approval to pay Law up to $500,000.

The paperwork justifying the fivefold increase was prepared by Fowler White under instructions from Mervine and Gibbs, according to Diane Jones, a spokeswoman for the Expressway Authority. Gibbs signed the request.

On Dec. 4, the Attorney General's Office approved raising the cap to $500,000 because "it appears to be more cost-effective to remain with Fowler White."

As of late Monday, the law firm, which is supposed to bill monthly, hadn't submitted invoices for November and December. In a written response to the Times, Fowler White attorney Susan Johnson-Velez explained that the agency had asked the law firm to "reformat" its invoices, which delayed the bills.

Board member Clark didn't need to see a bottom line to feel like Law and her firm were doing a good job.

"Because of her, we have a fresh slant on everything that's been going on," he said. "We're getting a fresh, unbiased look at how we operate."

Michael Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3402 or mvansickler@sptimes.com.

[Last modified January 23, 2007, 06:12:59]