Philly to Pay $7M Legal Bill; It’s Hard to Hire In-House Lawyers for Only $49K

Philadelphia's top in-house lawyer had hoped to cut outside counsel costs significantly this year, to about $566,000.

But that didn't happen. Instead, when the current fiscal year ends on June 30, it looks like the city law department will have spent about $7.1 million on outside counsel, the most in at least a decade, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Municipal officials are scrambling to make up the shortfall, and the City Council may cover $5 million that the law department doesn't by agreeing today to transfer money from other departments.

Estimating future legal expenses, of course, is an inexact science, and city solicitor Shelley Smith was handicapped by the fact that Philadelphia doesn't have a full complement of in-house counsel, the newspaper writes. It's hard to hire attorneys to work in-house for the city, she says, because the starting salary for beginning lawyers is only $49,000, compared to around $100,000 at private firms.