HomeMy WebLinkAboutLiebert Cassidy Whitmore 2017-03-25; Amendment 4 2020-11-181
9167079.1 LC001-009
AGREEMENT FOR SPECIAL SERVICES
This Agreement is entered into between the law firm of LIEBERT CASSIDY
WHITMORE, A Professional Corporation (“Attorney”), and the CITY OF UKIAH, A
Municipal Corporation (“City”).
1.Conditions
This Agreement will not take effect, and Attorney will have no obligation to
provide services, until City returns a properly signed and executed copy of this
Agreement.
2.Attorney’s Services
Attorney agrees to provide City with consulting, representational and legal
services pertaining to employment relations matters, including representation in
negotiations and in administrative and court proceedings, as requested by City or
otherwise required by law.
3.Fees, Costs, Expenses
City agrees to pay Attorney the sums billed monthly for time spent by Attorney in
providing the services, including reasonable travel time.
The current range of hourly rates for Attorney time is from Two Hundred Ten to
Three Hundred Eighty Dollars ($210.00 - $380.00). See Schedule I for a full Fee
Schedule. Attorney reviews its hourly rates on an annual basis and, if appropriate,
adjusts them effective July 1. Attorney will provide the City with written notification of
any adjustment in the range of rates. Attorney bills its time in minimum units of one-
tenth of an hour.
COU No. 1617-175-A4
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For Litigation Matters
See Schedule II attached for a description of Attorney’s Litigation and E-
Discovery Management.
Other Expenses
City agrees to reimburse Attorney for necessary costs and expenses incurred by
Attorney on behalf of City. Attorney bills photocopying charges at Fifteen Cents ($0.15)
per page. See Schedule I attached.
Payment by City against monthly billings is due upon receipt of statements, and is
considered delinquent if payment is not received within thirty (30) days of the date of the
invoice.
4.Professional Liability Insurance
The California Business & Professions Code requires us to inform you whether
we maintain errors and omissions insurance coverage applicable to the services to be
rendered to you. We hereby confirm that the firm does maintain such insurance
coverage.
5.File Retention
After our services conclude, Attorney will, upon City’s request, deliver the file for
the matter to City, along with any funds or property of City’s in our possession. If City
requests the file for the matter, Attorney will retain a copy of the file at the City’s
expense. If City does not request the file for this matter, we will retain it for a period of
seven (7) years after this matter is closed. If City does not request delivery of the file for
this matter before the end of the seven (7) year period, we will have no further obligation
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to retain the file and may, at our discretion, destroy it without further notice to City. At
any point during the seven (7) year period, City may request delivery of the file.
6.Assignment
This Agreement is not assignable without the written consent of City.
7.Independent Contractor
It is understood and agreed that Attorney, while engaged in performing the terms
of this Agreement, is an independent contractor and not an employee of City.
8.Authority
The signators to this Agreement represent that they hold the positions set forth
below their signatures, and that they are authorized to execute this Agreement on behalf
of their respective parties and to bind their respective parties hereto.
9.Term
This Agreement is effective November 18, 2020, ongoing and may be modified
by mutual agreement of the parties. This agreement shall be terminable by either party
upon thirty (30) days written notice.
LIEBERT CASSIDY WHITMORE, CITY OF UKIAH,
A Professional Corporation A Municipal Corporation
By: ________________________ By: _______________________
Name: ______________________ Name: _____________________
Title: _______________________ Title: ______________________
Date: _______________________ Date: ______________________
Sage Sangiacomo
City Manager
Jan 6, 2021
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SCHEDULE I – FEES & COSTS
1.Hourly Rates (As of Agreement Effective Date)
Partners $380.00
Senior Counsel $325.00
Associates $210.00 - $305.00
Labor Relations/HR Consultant $240.00
Paralegals $135.00
E- Discovery Specialists $135.00
Law Clerks $135.00 - $175.00
2.COSTS
1. Photocopies $0.15 per copy
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SCHEDULE II
LCW LITIGATION and E-DISCOVERY MANAGEMENT
LCW is committed to using state-of-the-art technology to efficiently manage and
harness electronically-stored information (“ESI”) in compliance with Federal and State
law requirements. LCW partners with an outside managed services provider to provide
Relativity, the industry leading e-discovery software, for this purpose. The cost for each
matter will depend on the volume and format of the data. For non-complex data up to 50
gigabytes, LCW charges a monthly fee of $375 on all active litigation matters for data
management, including data validation and security, ingestion, de-duplication, culling
and streamlining, and creation of Relativity fields for expedited review. For data of 50
gigabytes and over and for complex data requiring specialized services (e.g., payroll data,
spreadsheets with underlying formulas, video, advanced searches, etc.), additional
charges are incurred and are passed through to the client. For such charges, we will
provide an itemized bill from our managed services provider and obtain client approval
prior to incurring the charges.
Litigation Case Staffing
LCW has organized its litigation practice to meet the challenges of today’s
complex litigation cases. We employ a dedicated Litigation Manager – a non-billing
attorney litigator – whose responsibility is to monitor all litigation cases to ensure quality,
efficiency, and adherence to client and firm litigation guidelines. Each litigation case is
staffed with a Partner, an Associate (or Associates, as required and as approved by the
Client), a Paralegal and an E-Discovery Specialist. Our E-Discovery Specialists have
extensive experience in the efficient management of electronic data through every stage
of the e-discovery life cycle, and they strategize with attorneys and clients on effective
ESI protocols. This makes the document review process more efficient and enables our
attorneys to target the most relevant data to meet litigation objectives. Working with our
e-discovery managed services provider, we are able to provide state-of-the-art data
processing and hosting services at below-market rates.