Indy Sheriff's $3M Lock Reynolds Contract Under Microscope
Since 2003, Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson has spent more than $3 million in legal fees with law firm Lock Reynolds. Five three-year contracts signed by Anderson last year could produce another $1.5 million for the firm, significantly more than outside counsel for neighboring counties and similarly-sized Midwestern cities, the Indianapolis Star reports.
The lead attorney on the job, Kevin Murray, who ran Anderson’s election campaigns in 2002 and 2006, has drawn complaints of favoritism among critics, the newspaper notes.
In the article, Anderson defends the legal tab by citing the complexity of the sheriff department’s legal issues, ranging from deputy labor contract negotiations to defense work in lawsuits filed against his 1,000 employee department. The department also faced a turbulent period of mergers and jail issues that might justify the expense, added Charles Braun, a staff attorney for the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy.
But in a survey of other similarly-sized cities, the Star discovered that Indianapolis significantly outspent sheriff’s departments in Cincinnati, Columbus, Ohio, Minneapolis, and Charlotte, N.C., all of which rely solely on public-sector attorneys for the bulk of their legal work. In St. Louis, the sheriff has a part-time legal adviser on a $20,000 annual retainer.
More details revealed in the paper include that the Marion County contracts were capped at $725,000 a year, at top billable rates of $225 an hour, totaling more than $3.1 million for the work of 19 Lock Reynolds lawyers during Anderson’s tenure. The Star reports that the 27 lawyers employed in the Indianapolis corporation counsel office are each paid $45,000 to $95,000—at no charge to various agencies, including the police department.
The use of private attorneys in addition to lower-paid city or county lawyers, is not unusual for Indiana sheriffs, the newspaper notes, but they often spend a fraction of Marion County’s expenses.
Updated at 9:50 a.m. Oct. 28 to include details about other cities.
