The Chicago Transit Authority has more than doubled its payments to outside lawyers in the last four years, even as its own legal staff budget grew to an all-time high of $7.9 million.
The cash-strapped agency, which implemented fare increases of up to 25 percent on Jan. 1, has increased annual payments to private lawyers to $2,871,000 in 1987, compared with $1,308,000 in 1984, according to CTA records.
At the same time, the CTA`s budget for its own legal staff rose to $7.9 million for its 29 lawyers and support staff of 98. In 1984, that budget was $5.9 million.
The payments to outside attorneys in 1987 exceeded by nearly $700,000 the $2.2 million the agency had set aside for such expenses. The 1988 budget calls for payment of $2.6 million in fees to outside attorneys.
Though there is no indication that the work by the outside lawyers is unsatisfactory, the fees to politically connected lawyers have ballooned while the CTA has had to increase fares to meet operating costs.
It is difficult to determine whether the increase parallels general hourly rate increases in legal billings across the country because CTA officials declined to say how much outside attorneys are paid or how payment rates are determined. Some of the lawyers, however, said they were paid as little as $60 an hour.
The increase in legal bills coincides with the four-year tenure of Joyce Hughes, CTA general attorney, who upon signing her contract in 1984 expressed alarm at the bills submitted by outside lawyers, which had totaled $1.1 million in 1983.
At that time, Hughes took the unusual step of recalling $1.8 million in outstanding legal work as a part of a review to determine whether the work could by handled by staff lawyers.
Hughes and her top aide, Dorval Carter Jr., declined to respond to a list of reporters` questions on the agency`s legal costs. The list was submitted through CTA spokeswoman Rosemarie Gulley.
A Tribune study of CTA payments to 79 outside attorneys and law firms also showed that some politically connected attorneys have received thousands of dollars in payments, primarily to defend personal-injury cases but also to defend the agency against lawsuits brought by the CTA`s own lawyers, charging agency officials with sexual and racial discrimination.
And though the legal payments increased, the number of personal-injury cases filed against the CTA has remained reasonably constant. According to the CTA`s 1988 budget, there were 966 personal-injury suits brought against the agency in 1986, a projected 757 in 1987 and an estimated 850 for 1988.
The number of cases filed has varied little, but the amount paid out to injured passengers has increased by about 80 percent, to nearly $10 million in 1987 from about $6 million in 1986.
According to budget figures, the average settlement in 1986 was $8,742, a projected $13,353 in 1987 and an estimated $14,559 in 1988.
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The beneficiaries of the CTA outside-attorney account include:
– William G. Clark Jr., son of Illinois Supreme Court Justice William Clark, who was paid $15,625 last year and a total of $124,180 over the last five years.
– Nicholas B. Comerford, brother of Chief Cook County Circuit Court Judge Harry Comerford, who was paid $69,075 last year and a total of $371,887 over the last five years.
– James E. Dahl, son of retired Circuit Judge Walter P. Dahl, who was paid $22,783 last year and a total of $180,716 over the last five years.
– Daniel R. Fusco, a member of the law firm of State Senate President Philip Rock (D., Oak Park), who was paid $12,151 last year and a total of $84,085 over the last five years.
– Vincent J. Getzendanner Jr., a member of the law firm of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D., Chicago), who was paid $14,534 last year and a total of $45,847 over the last four years.
– State Rep. Ellis B. Levin (D., Chicago), who was paid $8,246 last year and a total of $65,983 over the past three years.
– James E. O`Halloran Jr., former law partner to former CTA general attorney James Demaret, who was paid $4,074 last year and $174,297 over the last five years. Another former Demaret partner, Donald J. LaVarre, was paid $2,302 last year and $56,866 over the last five years.
– Donald J. O`Brien, son of retired Circuit Judge Donald J. O`Brien Sr., who was paid $48,940 last year and a total of $292,232 over the last five years.
– State Rep. Anthony L. Young (D., Chicago), who was paid $23,499 last year and a total of $37,494 over the last three years.
– Seymour Zaban, former member of the Cook County Board of (tax) Appeals, who was paid $2,205 in 1987 and a total of $31,492 over the last four years. Zaban`s son, Sherwin, is on the CTA`s legal staff and recently received a $10,000 salary increase, to $37,000 from $27,000.
Some of the outside lawyers said they are restricted to fees as low as $60 an hour. Others declined to reveal their hourly rates, saying their fee rates were negotiated with the CTA.
Some of the attorneys receiving CTA fees have been doing legal work for the agency for more than 30 years, including Norman J. Barry, whose law firm, Rothschild Barry & Myers, received $154,702 last year and a total of $326,520 over the last five years.
Others, such as Allison Davis, a partner in the former law firm of city Corporation Counsel Judson Miner, are newcomers to the outside-attorney list. Davis first appeared on the list last year, when he was paid $36,004 for legal services performed for the CTA.
Though most of the legal work done by outside counsel involves personal-injury cases, the agency`s legal problems with labor contracts,
discrimination and harassment cases, and a complaint filed by handicapped riders proved to be a financial bonanza for some law firms.
For example, the law firm of Schiff, Hardin & Waite, which is handling the complaint by handicapped riders and is defending several discrimination lawsuits brought by CTA employees, was paid $713,952 last year and a total of $983,538 since the firm was hired in October, 1986.
The law firm of Laner, Muchin, Dombrow and Becker Ltd., which has been involved in negotiating CTA labor contracts, was paid $136,076 last year. And the firm of Watt and Thompson, whose partners include former Circuit Judge Garland Watt and also was involved in labor negotiations, was paid $154,039 last year.
Hughes, a former professor at Northwestern University Law School and onetime member of the Chicago Board of Education, was chosen in March, 1984, for the $70,200-a-year legal post, reportedly at the behest of the late Mayor Harold Washington.
Hughes immediately redefined the position of general attorney, expanding it to a full-time job from a part-time position. She signed a four-year contract that is up for renewal this March.
Last month, Hughes approved a reorganization of the CTA`s internal legal department that included several pay increases ranging up to 40 percent, which Hughes said would bring salaries into a range more competitive with private legal salaries.
Hughes also has increased the size of her legal staff, saying the agency was involved in labor-contract negotiations and the case in which handicapped passengers sued because of what they called inadequate service.