13181 Crossroads Parkway North
Suite 400-West Tower
City of Industry, CA 91746
Tel: 562.699.5500
Fax: 562.692.2244
www.agclawfirm.com
Northern California • Napa Valley/Yountville Southern California • City of Industry
VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
April 21, 2025
Mr. Jesus Gomez
City Manager
City of Norwalk
12700 Norwalk Blvd.
Norwalk, CA 90650
[email protected]
RE: Rate Adjustments for 2025
Dear Mr. Gomez:
As you know, Alvarez-Glasman & Colvin (AGC) has proudly provided City Attorney and related services to the City of Norwalk (City) for over five years. As a team of skilled and talented attorneys, AGC takes great pride in being more than just another City vendor, we become part of the City’s team and partner. AGC looks forward to many more years of quality legal services and continuing our strong relationship with the City.
When AGC was appointed City Attorney, aside from providing low hourly rates for our services, we also committed to maintain our hourly rates without adjustment for the first two years. In 2022, our firm requested and the City approved our only request for a CPI increase which has remained in place for three years. In April of last year, I communicated with Ms. Kabaklian- Slentz the need for an adjustment for fiscal year 2024-25. In order to be sensitive to maintaining the cost of legal services, AGC deferred implementing that rate increase throughout the first half of the fiscal year.
However, careful consideration, it is necessary to make adjustment consistent with CPI calculations and to bring the value of our legal services comparable to those being charged by your previous City Attorney law firm and those rates charged by attorneys serving other neighboring cities. At the time our firm started as City Attorney, we provided Norwalk an hourly rate in 2020 which was below what the City was being charged by the City’s prior firm back in 2015. When examining a rate increase by applying CPI to the rates being charged by your previous City attorney law firm in 2015, the current rate today for general law rates would be set at $258.26 and special advice and litigation rates should be set at $336.35. This is calculated by comparing the hourly rates charged by your prior law firm with a CPI adjustment Attachment No. 1
Mr. Jesus Gomez
City Manager
City of Norwalk
April 21, 2025
to current day rates. However, to be mindful of the goal of being sensitive to the cost of legal services, AGC is limiting our rates to $250.00 per hour for general legal services and $295.00 per hour for special services. Law Clerk rates will be set at $150 per hour.
When comparing our firm’s rates to other neighboring cities, school districts and other public agencies of comparable size and scope of legal needs, including rates charged by special counsel, AGC’s rates remain substantially lower than that of other cities. As an example, the City of Cerritos City Attorney fees are as follows:
General legal services $285 for Partners and $260 for Associates Special legal services $325 for Partners and $295 for Associates Litigation and Risk Management $325 for Partners and $295 for Associates
AGC hourly rates will be between $35.00 and $30.00 less per hour for services provided by our firm’s Partners for General and Special legal services.
As another example, the City of El Monte’s law firm has a monthly basic retainer amount of $67,000 per month as compared to AGC’s monthly basic services rate of $18,750 per month for the first 50 hours. Even factoring months when basic service hours exceed 50 hours per month, the City of Norwalk is saving over $500,000 annually in legal costs over a city like El Monte.
One final example of a comparable city is the City of Alhambra. Alhambra paid their law firm the hourly rate, as of March 1, 2024, the following rates:
City Attorney and Assistant $309 per hour
Partners 12 years or less $330 per hour
Partners 13-20 years $353 per hour
Partners 21+ years $380 per hour
Associates’ rates range from $317 to $253 per hour
(The above rates were subject to a CPI adjustment on March 1, 2025)
As can be seen, AGC’s rate have been significantly below market rate and even with our request rate adjustment would still be below those rates paid by other cities for their City Attorney services.
Finally, our last request is the Term of our agreement with the City needs to be renewed. Our request is that the definition of Term be consistent with our retainer agreements for our other public agency clients and consistent with the exact language found in the Amended and Restated Agreement for Legal Services between the City and your previous City Attorney firm.
Accordingly, the definition of TERM would read as follows:
Mr. Jesus Gomez
City of Norwalk
April 21, 2025
Northern California • Napa Valley/Yountville Southern California • City of Industry
TERM. The Term of this Agreement, which commenced on October 16, 2019, shall supersede the Term defined in that Agreement and shall continue until terminated as provided herein.
Over the past years, AGC has provided the City of Norwalk excellent legal services and has saved the City hundreds of thousands of dollars. AGC remains committed to providing the City with the highest quality and innovative legal services. AGC has demonstrated extraordinary results in providing day-to-day guidance and advice and has achieved success in numerous complex matters. On behalf of AGC, we appreciate the continued opportunity in serving the City of Norwalk. We look forward to having the attached First Amendment be considered by the City Council at the earliest possible date.
If you have any questions concerning this request, please feel free to contact me directly.
Very truly yours,
ALVAREZ-GLASMAN & COLVIN
Arnold M. Alvarez-Glasman
Managing Partner
Attachment: First Amendment to Agreement for City Attorney Services