Office of the
City Attorney
CITY OF
RIVERSIDE
City of Arts & Innovation
October 31, 2023
VIA ELECTONIC MAIL
Theodore L. Senet, Esq.
Gibbs Giden
12100 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Subject: Representation: City of Riverside
Re: Griffith Company v. City of Riverside
Riverside Superior Court Case No. CVRI2303544
Dear Mr. Senet:
This will confirm that the City of Riverside City Attorney's Office is retaining Gibbs Giden to represent the City in the above-referenced matter. Said representation is pursuant to the existing Attorney Services Agreement as well as the terms set forth in the attached Billing Guidelines.
The budget for this matter shall not exceed $389,875.00, including expert witness fees.
Please execute and return a copy of this letter acknowledging your consent to the retention in the above matter and to the terms associated therewith to the undersigned. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Very truly yours,
Phaedra A. Norton
City Attorney
Attachment
I hereby accept the retention in the above matter and agree to abide by the terms of the Attorney Services Agreement and the Billing Guidelines.
Thoodore L Senet
Partner
INTTORNEY
* A
3900 Main Street • Riverside, CA 92522 • tel 951.826.5567 • fax 951.826.5540 • www.riversideca.gov Billing Guidelines
In a continuing effort to clearly communicate the City's expectations to our retained counsel to ensure we are fiscally responsible and good stewards of the taxpayers' funds, and to build community trust below are guidelines that are to be followed for any work completed on our behalf. Any exception or deviation of these guidelines must have prior written approval from the City, or the billing item will be disallowed. • A detailed description of all time billed must be broken out by each task with a notation of the time devoted to such task. No block billing will be accepted. • No billing for legal research that is within the purported expertise of the lawyer hired will be accepted.
Any time spent educating junior lawyers in the substantive law or researching matters considered to be common knowledge among reasonably experienced counsel in a jurisdiction should not be billed. • No billing for internal conferences between lawyers of the same firm will be accepted, unless authorized by the City.
• No excessive or repeated review of file, pleadings, depositions, medical records etc., will be accepted. • No more than one lawyer to make appearances at meetings, court, depositions, etc. Only the primary assigned lawyer may appear before the Court. Prior written approval must be obtained before any other lawyers)appear. Any change in the primary assigned lawyer requires the prior written approval of the City. The City retains the discretion to remove any attorney assigned to the matter. • Whenever practicable, Court Call, Zoom, or other virtual platform should be utilized for routine court appearances.
• Legal research in excess of four hours during the pendency of the case must have prior City approval. • The City of Riverside considers the following costs part of outside counsel's overhead and will not accept charges for the following items: computer; secretarial; word processing; messenger services provided by a firm employee; email; incoming facsimiles; rent; conference rooms; lighting; air conditioning; supplies; library staff; library use and materials; clerks; proofreaders; organizing, reorganizing and maintaining files; indexing and tabbing materials; creating and organizing files; corresponding with vendors; processing vendors bills; organizing files for storage; collating; copying documents; ordering and instructing vendors; general clerical functions; and overtime. Exception must have prior City approval.
• The City expects counsel to limit and/or avoid unnecessary travel through teleconferencing or use of virtual platforms. Travel must have prior written approval from the City. • Outside counsel are not authorized to retain any outside vendors/consultants without City approval.
The budget for any outside vendor/consultant shall not exceed Fifty Thousand dollars ($50,000) without City Council approval in accordance with the Procurement Resolution and the City Attorney's authority under Section 205.
• All billing will be done in accordance with the highest ethics of the legal profession (e.g. prohibited billing practices - double-billing, value billing, expense reimbursement without supporting documentation, etc.)
• Invoices shall be submitted monthly to [email protected] Rev: 6/21/22