Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Things you should know

Thanks to some sleuthy work by another unnamed blogger (at his/her bequest) we now learn that the law firms Nagin is contracting with city cash, donated to his last mayoral campaign.

Gordon Arata must have been anticipating a Nagin debacle back in 2006:

By the by, the law firm of Gordon Arata has contributed $15,000 to Nagin:

Candidate/Committee Report Type Description (Loan Interest Rate) Date Amount
Source
Address City ST Zip
------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ray Nagin 40G CONTRIB
02/16/2002 5000.00
Gordon Arata McCollam Et al 201 St Charles 40th Floor New Orleans LA 70170
Ray Nagin SPCL CONTRIB
02/16/2002 5000.00
Gordon Arata McCollam Et al 201 St Charles 40th Floor New Orleans LA 70170
Ray Nagin 30P CONTRIB
12/24/2001 2500.00
GordonArataMcCollam etc..LLP 201 St.Charles 40th Fl New Orleans LA 70170
Ray Nagin 180P CONTRIB
04/06/2005 2500.00
Gordon Arata McCollam et al 201 St Charles Ave 40th Floor New Orleans LA 70170

Total Amounts (4 records) 15000.00

Beveridge must have as well:

Beveridge has given $4500:
Candidate/Committee Report Type Description (Loan Interest Rate) Date Amount
Source
Address City ST Zip
------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ray Nagin 180P CONTRIB 06/20/2005 2500.00
Beveridge & Diamond P.C. 1350 I Street NW Suite 700 Washington DC 20005
Ray Nagin 40G CONTRIB
02/28/2002 1000.00
Beveridge & Diamond P.C. 1350 I Street NW Suite 700 Washington DC 20005
Ray Nagin SPCL CONTRIB
02/28/2002 1000.00
Beveridge & Diamond P.C. 1350 I Street NW Suite 700 Washington DC 20005

Total Amounts (3 records) 4500.00


The city also seems to be overpaying on the legal contract:

Here's the rates from the contract:

Michael Botnick $250.00/hr
Associate(s) $175.00/hr
A legal services signed by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East with Gordon Arata included the following rates:

WHEREAS,

Gordon, Arata, McCollam, Duplantis & Eagan, LLP proposes to

use the following staff to perform services under this contract:

Michael E. Botnick – 34 years experience - $200 per hour

Scott A. O’Connor – 20 years experience - $200 per hour

C. Peck Hayne, Jr. – 22 years experience - $200 per hour

Loulan Pitre – 23 years experience - $200 per hour

Steve Copley – 25 years experience - $200 per hour

Blake G. Arata – 56 years experience - $200 per hour

John M. McCollam – 50 years experience - $200 per hour

Aimee Williams Hebert – 11 years experience - $200 per hour

Sara E. Mouledoux – 6 years experience - $150 per hour

Abaigeal Van Deerlin – 3 years experience - $125 per hour

Dana Dupre – 2 years experience - $100 per hour

Wesley W. Sharples – 2 years experience - $100 per hour

Benjamin S. Allums – 2 years experience - $100 per hour

Nice sleuthing, sir/mam.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those rates seem really cheap and well below the going rate for private work.

Perhaps a lawyer could weigh in on how common it is to give municipal clients a substantial discount.

Anonymous said...

Well done, sleuthy person!

Anonymous said...

Does anybody remember Nagin using *this* law firm to fight the transparency ordinance?
http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-regional/11752741-1.html

Did Nagin seek Council approval for using them because they sure would seem to have met PMF's definition of "special counsel" who replaced the City Attorney in entirety, right?

-- Also, is there any link between Beveridge & Diamond and Rev. Benjamin Edwards and the S&WB? Would it be fair to say that's how they got referred to Nagin in the first place???

Anonymous said...

that rate is dirt cheap for litigation, even in the New Orleans market. Would Nagin even have had anything to do with picking Gordon for that levee board case? He probably could care less about who the law firm is in that case ...