[Petra Pasternak]
It looks like the debt-laden city of Los Angeles will be shedding at least 100 legal positions before the summer is half over.
In a memo (.pdf) describing 1,000 city government positions marked for elimination, about 60 are deputy attorneys and 40 legal staff.
By cutting 60 deputy attorney positions, the city aimed to save close to $6 million in salaries. The biggest hit went to those holding positions in a section labeled “central trials” who were making between $74,875 and $92,100 — 10 of those posts were highlighted for elimination. Other areas on the chopping block included workers comp, labor relations, criminal appeals, employment litigation and business litigation. The city attorneys’ office says on its web site that it employs more than 500 lawyers.
It’s unclear what the city council’s call today to cut 3,000 more positions will mean for the city attorneys’ office. So far, no layoff notices have gone out to city lawyers or staff, according to John Franklin, the director of communications for the city attorneys’ office.
“There’s $880 million in civil claims against the city at this time,” Franklin noted. “If all these mass layoffs take place, who’s going to defend them?”
The memo went out Feb. 8 from the city’s employee relations division to all city unions.
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