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City boosts legal team, with savings promised

Bringing work in-house will make up costs of new lawyer and clerk, council hears
Norm Gale
City Manager Norm Gale told city council new positions in the City Solicitor's office will be a money-saver. (Ian Kaufman, Tbnewswatch)

THUNDER BAY – The city says two new positions in its legal department will more than pay for themselves by reducing costly outsourcing. The office has added a second deputy solicitor and plans to add a law clerk, while eliminating an articling student position, saying the moves will lead to significant overall savings.

City Manager Norm Gale brought a report on the changes to city council on Wednesday, during the third of four meetings to set the 2020 municipal budget. He says the city’s small legal department has a heavy workload.

“It’s a division of the corporation of Thunder Bay that is under extreme duress,” he told council. “The pressures are enormous, the demands are enormous.”

City solicitor Patty Robinet told council that up to 20 per cent of the city’s legal fees go to outside law firms due to staffing constraints. She says the cost of outside counsel runs from $300 to $700 per hour, compared to $60 to $107 per hour for the city’s in-house lawyers.

According to Robinet, cities outside southern Ontario often struggle to recruit and retain top legal talent in needed areas of expertise (mostly litigation and real estate, planning, and development). A deputy solicitor hired from outside the community in 2018 stayed for just over a year. But in recent hiring to replace them, she was pleasantly surprised to see applications from two local lawyers with years of experience in those fields.

That prompted Gale to reorganize the department so both applicants could be hired as deputy solicitors. Administration also asked council to approve a second additional position, a law clerk who will support litigation work. The moves are expected to save at least $69,000 per year, after increased costs are figured in. Robinet told council she expects savings to be much higher, but gave a conservative estimate to avoid over-promising.

The new positions are expected to add about $190,000 per year in staffing costs, while savings in outside legal and insurance fees were conservatively estimated at around $260,000.

City council approved the proposed changes, though they will still need to be ratified when the budget is approved on Feb. 10.



Ian Kaufman

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