Political Gifts Cloud County Use of Private Legal Firms

On top of its own stable of full-time attorneys, Los Angeles County has paid $16.7 million in legal fees in the last two years to private law firms, some of them campaign contributors to members of the Board of Supervisors, county records show.

A computer study of campaign records by The Times found that the supervisors have received contributions from attorneys in 16 of the 74 law firms retained to supplement the county counsel. In the last four years, the contributions have totaled $140,860.

The county spends about $23 million yearly on its own staff of 110 attorneys, but the use of private attorneys--at fees ranging from $90 to more than $300 an hour--has grown rapidly as the number of claims and lawsuits against county officials has risen.

TV Focuses Attention

By comparison, the city of Los Angeles handles nearly all of its legal needs on civil cases with a staff of 150 assistant city attorneys. The city spent $182,000 last year for outside legal help on civil cases and has spent nothing on private help since July, a spokesman for City Atty. James K. Hahn said Tuesday.

Attention was focused on the county’s use of private attorneys in a series of reports on KCBS-TV Channel 2 this week. The station charged that private law firms have run up exorbitant bills without supervision from county officials, prompting the Board of Supervisors to ask County Counsel DeWitt Clinton on Tuesday to investigate the charges.

Clinton defended his office’s reliance on private attorneys in an interview with The Times on Tuesday and said they have provided the county with the talent needed to win more trials and negotiate more favorable settlements.

“I think we’ve saved substantial money because we have done a better job,” Clinton said.

Most of the private attorneys are hired to defend the county against claims arising from traffic mishaps, other accidents and workers’ compensation cases. For example, Clinton said, lawyers from his office, as well as private attorneys, are defending the county in about 1,000 claims against the Sheriff’s Department alone.

But the costliest cases involve complex legal disputes over land-use controls and, recently, landslides. The firm that has billed the county for the most work so far in 1988--Wasserman, Comden & Casselman--has received $1,293,998 for work helping the county with litigation over the Big Rock landslide in Malibu.

Partner’s Connections

Next on the list was a firm--Parker, Milliken, Clark & Samuelian--that Clinton admitted was hired in part for the political connections of a partner in the firm, Karl Samuelian, one of Gov. George Deukmejian’s closest advisers and his chief political fund-raiser. The firm has received $497,526 so far this year.

Clinton said Samuelian was a key factor in the county reaching an agreement with the state Department of Transportation on the Big Rock landslide case, and he described Samuelian’s value as “a person who is able to provide meetings with top people in the state (where) you can present your case.”

Samuelian became well known in the political world in the 1982 governor’s campaign when he took charge of Deukmejian’s fund raising. He organized an intensive, grass-roots efforts, much of it centered on the Armenian community, enabling the underdog Deukmejian to win the Republican primary and eventual election. In 1986, with Deukmejian as the incumbent, Samuelian was even more successful.

Attorneys in Samuelian’s law firm have donated $14,300 to county Supervisors Deane Dana and Mike Antonovich in the last four years. Both supervisors are active in Republican politics.

In this year alone, the firm, and lawyers in it, donated $4,500 to Antonovich, who is in a runoff election against challenger Baxter Ward in the 5th District. Dana, who was easily reelected in the primary, received $5,000 from the firm and its attorneys.

Suit Over Homeless

The Samuelian firm is also helping to defend the county against a suit brought by the city of Los Angeles, which charges the county with not taking adequate care of homeless indigents. City officials said Tuesday they saw no need for the county to use outside attorneys. “We are perplexed,” Chief Deputy City Atty. John Emerson said.

Clinton said he and his staff select the firms to be awarded county contracts without regard to any campaign contributions they make to the supervisors. “I can only tell you that I picked firms because I thought they were the right firms,” he said. “I have never discussed (campaign contributions) with the supervisors in the selection of law firms.”

Clinton said, however, that another situation where political connections proved valuable was in hiring the firm of Baker & McKenzie, which includes former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Robert Philibosian. Clinton said the firm was hired primarily because it was “a good litigation firm,” but that Philibosian had actively sought a piece of the county legal business, and Clinton’s staff was impressed with a firm that could combine trial experience with the contacts of Philibosian, a Republican with close ties to the Republican Administration in Sacramento.

Donations Tabulated

Among the firms that have been hired to do legal work by the county, attorneys at O’Melveny & Myers, one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious law firms, have contributed the most. They donated $47,500, including $5,000 each this year to Antonovich and Dana.

The Times’ computer analysis of reports filed through May looked at contributions from law firms and their attorneys receiving county business. The other leaders include: Memel & Jacobs, $35,200; Riordan & McKinzie, $14,000; Lewis, D’Amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard, $12,350; Buchalter, Nemer, Fields & Younger, $7,050; Burke, Williams & Sorenson, $2,500; Grant & Duncan, $1,450; Musick, Peeler, Garrett, $1,700, and Lomax & Green, $1,200.

Times City-County Bureau Chief Bill Boyarsky and researcher Cecilia Rasmussen contributed to this story.