by David Ball
Staff Writer
Many words have described the City of Jacksonville’s Office of General Counsel.
Former Mayor Ed Austin, who served as general counsel himself, once described the team of city attorneys as “the glue that holds consolidated government together.” The quote is on the office’s Web site.
Lately, some of the words, particularly in the media, have criticized the handling of possible ethics violations by the City Council, as well as the office’s 40-lawyer payroll during a time when Florida residents have decried taxing burdens caused by swelling government budgets.
Current General Counsel Rick Mullaney has a different opinion – that the City is receiving the best legal counsel, dollar-for-dollar, of any government in Florida. A bold assertion, but one supported by some in the legal community and even more so by a pile of figures and statistics that put into perspective how much the Office of General Counsel does, and for how much.
For Mullaney, the best description of his office may be from personal injury attorney John Jolly, a former general counsel department head, who said, “They fight hard, and they fight like it’s their own money.”
The Mullaney era
The fight isn’t only in the courtroom, but also to become more efficient, effectively utilize technology and attract the best lawyers possible. Enter Mullaney.
After starting out in the tort litigation department in 1991 under then-General Counsel Fred Franklin, Mullaney was appointed general counsel by Mayor John Delaney in 1997 and 1999 and then reappointed by Mayor John Peyton in 2003. As general counsel, Mullaney grew the office only from 38 to 40 attorneys, but focused on paralegal and technology growth to bring the office to the current $8-million operation.
“When I first went there, we didn’t have any computers,” said Jolly, who served from 1993-2003. “Right after he became general counsel, we had computers on everybody’s desk.
“By making changes in certain tort litigation defense, he saved the city millions of dollars, and he revamped the billing procedures and practices,” Jolly continued. “Rick turned it into a professional law office, through not only changing that mentality, but also bringing in the best of the best.”
Mullaney said his biggest accomplishments have come at the hiring desk.
“I think the most important thing I do as general counsel is look for talent,” said Mullaney. “I believe we have the most talented group of lawyers in any public office in the state of Florida.”
A glance at pedigrees shows graduates from Harvard, Cornell, Georgetown and the venerable crowd from the University of Florida along with three editors-in-chief of various law journals. None of the lawyers have less than five years experience.
“They are good lawyers over there, and they are well regarded,” said Eddie Farah of Farah & Farah, which handles many personal injury suits against the City. “They are very competent and they hire good people over there.”
Mullaney said lawyers across the country now contact his office regularly looking for jobs, a significant achievement, he said, considering the “low” salary range of $75,000 to the $199,000 Mullaney earns.
“The pay for the public sector is very competitive, but for the private sector it’s not,” said Mullaney. “Most people think we’re trying to recruit people with public service in mind, but that’s not the case. We recruit people who are first and foremost great lawyers.”
But compensation is a factor, as it was with Jolly, who said he now makes considerably more in private liability practice and is further away from the administrative duties of a public office.
“But I would not have left (general counsel) for an insignificant (pay) difference, because I love the people there, the camaraderie,” he said.
Mullaney said a chief benefit to his office is exactly what separates it from a private practice: No advertising and other overhead, no soliciting clients and no rainmaking.
“You don’t have to be entrepreneurial,” said Mullaney. “You don’t have to give out your business card, you don’t have to go to Christmas parties and solicit business. You can practice your craft.”
Jolly said the office offers an optimal learning environment, which attracts lawyers who want to become proficient in a practice area and then leave for the private sector. But when they are with the City, it’s all about the work.
“There is a perception that in government work, you don’t work as long or as hard,” said Jolly. “I didn’t find that to be the case. There are so many cases, and it was a constant strain to provide quality services without adding staff. We were able to do it only because people worked.”
Unique in Florida
The work done at the Office of General Counsel is almost as varied as the client base. The obvious users are the mayor and all City departments, City Council, the more than 40 City boards, committees and agencies, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Jacksonville Fire and Rescue.
But the OGC is the only public firm in Florida that also provides all legal services to five constitutional officers, the Duval County School System and the city’s independent authorities, including JEA, JTA, the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, the Jacksonville Port Authority and the Housing Authority.
Those entities of Jacksonville’s consolidated government combine for a total budget of more than $4 billion, which Mullaney notes is larger than the budgets of six U.S. states.
“The natural reaction for most people when they hear you have a 40-lawyer public office, they think, ‘gosh, aren’t you large?’” said Mullaney. “But when they hear about our client base and the services we provide, they say, ‘gosh, aren’t you small?’ I think the latter is more accurate.”
Those 40 lawyers are spread across multiple departments handling litigation, real estate, land use, environmental, labor and employment, eminent domain, bankruptcy, finance, contract and other practices. And when an issue is outside of the office’s expertise, such as communications law or tax work, or a conflict of interest arises, the general counsel contracts with outside firms, as it has done this fiscal year to the tune of $381,710.
Defenders of the City
In terms of in-house legal work, the busiest area, not surprisingly, is litigation, where half of the office’s attorneys work. Nine lawyers work in general litigation covering commercial, contract and numerous other suits that average more than 500 cases at any given time. In tort litigation, five lawyers work on some 200 ongoing personal injury suits and four more handle numerous worker’s comp cases.
“When you’re a billion-dollar-a-year corporation, which is what the City of Jacksonville is, you’re going to have your own share of lawsuits,” said Mullaney. “If only we could recover for mental pain and anguish.”
But it may be the prosecutors that feel the anguish. Last year, the City received personal injury claims demanding more than $78 million. The City paid out $1.7 million, for an average settlement of $1,667 per suit.
Many of those suits are brought by Farah’s firm, and he said a state law that caps personal injury damages at $100,000 per person and $200,000 per case, and caps attorney’s fees at 25 percent, means that most cases are settled for smaller payouts before they even get to trial, where expenses can make such a case economically unfeasible.
“Imagine all the work it takes to pursue a case,” said Farah. “You could work for years, and you could end up working for minimum wage almost.
“To us, it’s a matter of principle. The person’s been injured, and they’ve got a valid claim and deserve their day in court,” he added. “We have enough cases so we can absorb those kinds of low-pay cases.”
Personal Injury Litigation Defense
The price of protection
And when City attorneys are defending the City, from say a recent Farah & Farah claim that a client was struck with a lifeguard umbrella at the Forrest High swimming pool, they are billing in rates ranging from $120 to $185 per hour, far below private practices that normally charge between $250 and $400 per hour.
“We have truly one of the biggest bargains in the state of Florida,” said Mullaney. “Part of it is, we don’t make as much, and we keep our expenses down.”
Jacksonville’s consolidated government makes it difficult to compare spending, salary and case load statistics with other Florida cities, which have separate county governments. For instance, according to a report by University of North Florida student Patricia Ramirez, Mullaney’s $199,000 salary is higher than the Orlando city attorney’s $176,500 salary. But, when you add the Orange County attorney’s salary of $195,900, it’s about $173,000 more than Mullaney is paid to do essentially the same job.
The most direct comparison may be with other consolidated governments, such as Indianapolis, Ind., which has a similar census population of about 800,000.
The Indianapolis office of Corporation Counsel has a budget half that of the Office of General Counsel at $4.7 million and a lower salary range at $67,344 to $121,221. But Indy’s 28 attorneys serve only 7,500 employees in the government departments and the City-County Council as compared to the nearly 20,000 City of Jacksonville employees served by the general counsel’s office.
That makes Jacksonville’s yearly legal expenses per employee about $408, while Indianapolis’ is higher at $627. The figures should remain stable for this coming fiscal year, as Mullaney has submitted a budget with roughly a 4 percent increase due to raises and typical yearly expenses.
“Prior to the budget cuts, I was hoping to maybe add two or three more lawyers and an additional paralegal,” said Mullaney. “That will certainly not be happening this year, but I don’t believe we will be reducing our quality of services.
“One reason the number of lawyers hasn’t grown in the last few years as you would expect it to,” Mullaney added, “is our increased productivity of using better technology and better lawyers, and we will continue to do that.”