LA agrees to pay nearly $5 million for big law firm in homelessness lawsuit

The Los Angeles City Council has agreed to pay millions more to a big law firm representing the city in a long-running federal legal settlement over the city’s response to the region’s homelessness crisis. The move comes despite some members’ concerns about the ballooning budget.

Why it matters

The city agreed in May to pay $900,000 to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher for an initial two-year contract. Then the city blew through that budget in just a few days.

The law firm billed the city about $1.8 million for two weeks of work, according to a May invoice LAist obtained through a public records request.

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Altogether, the city has been invoiced for $3.2 million as of Aug. 8, according to a memo written by L.A. City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto and obtained by the L.A. Times. LAist filed a public records request on Aug. 8 for the firm’s invoices starting in June, but still has not received those records from the City Attorney’s Office.

Why now

At the recommendation of the Budget and Finance Committee, the L.A. City Council agreed to amend the contract to increase funding for the firm to nearly $5 million through June 2026.

The vote on Wednesday was 10-3, with Councilmembers Nithya Raman, Adrin Nazarian and Tim McOsker against it. Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield and Monica Rodriguez were absent for the full council vote.

McOsker also voted against the Budget and Finance recommendation during the committee meeting on Tuesday.

The backstory

The City Council initially delayed the decision to increase the budget, sending the city attorney’s request to the Budget and Finance Committee a few weeks ago for further consideration.

Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who chairs the committee, said in a previous statement to LAist that she and her colleagues want to address the cost “in a way that protects taxpayers and establishes a thoughtful, long-term strategy for managing outside legal expenses.”

Yaroslavsky said the committee “ came up with what we thought was a reasonable solution” during Wednesday’s council meeting.

What's next

The firm has continued to work on the case for the city, including during a downtown L.A. hearing on Tuesday. The city is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that found officials failed in multiple ways to follow a settlement agreement to create more shelter for unhoused people.

Go deeper … for more about the firm and how we got here.