Independent thoughts on the most important election in the history of Los Angeles

L.A. Firms Bet on Wrong Horse in City Attorney Race

By Amanda Bronstad / Staff reporter

June 03, 2009

LOS ANGELES — Attorneys at some of the nation's largest law firms poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into one of the most expensive and contentious elections on record for Los Angeles city attorney — and then watched their favored candidate lose in an upset.

Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich — an environmental litigator at Trutanich-Michel, a boutique firm in Long Beach, Calif. — defeated Jack Weiss, a prominent Los Angeles city councilman, with more than 55% of the vote on May 19.

Trutanich takes office as city attorney on July 1.

The most recent campaign disclosure reports show that as of May 13, Weiss had raised more than $2.7 million in contributions, with a significant share coming from attorneys at large firms such as Bingham McCutchen; Latham & Watkins; Sidley Austin; San Diego-based Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins; Los Angeles-based Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges; and New York-based Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal and Proskauer Rose, according to the Los Angeles ethics commission.

No one from those firms gave to Trutanich, a relatively unknown candidate who raised a little more than half of Weiss's total through private donations. Most of the attorneys who gave to his campaign work in smaller local firms, including his own.

Lawyers indicated that they turned out for Weiss because he is widely known in legal circles; many of their homes and offices lie in Weiss's district in affluent West Los Angeles. Others conduct business with the city of Los Angeles.

Political experts said that those who failed to support Trutanich might now try to build bridges to the new city attorney. The office, which employs 500 lawyers, is among the largest municipal law offices in the country.

"It means they'll have to kiss and make up," Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute for Public Affairs, a nonpartisan public policy center at California State University, Los Angeles. "That means a fundraiser, being where he is, where he's speaking, and getting introductions they didn't have before."

'We didn't know Carmen Trutanich'

Trutanich made the use of outside law firms an issue during the campaign. Traditionally, the city attorney's office has used hired help on major employment, discrimination and police brutality cases, said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization in Los Angeles.

One firm that's done business with the office is Coughlin Stoia. Lawyers there gave more than $27,000 to Weiss in the race — one of the largest aggregate amounts from a law firm. They gave nothing to Trutanich.

"We supported Weiss because some of us have known him for nearly 20 years and some for nearly longer. We thought he was the best choice," said name partner Patrick Coughlin. "I assume it won't do anything for — or be held against — us for the city of L.A. We represented the city in tobacco and guns litigation, as well as some securities matters, and I assume we'll still get chosen based on the merits."

Lawyers at Atlanta's Alston & Bird and Weston Benshoof Rochefort Rubalcava & MacCuish, an environmental and land use firm that Alston & Bird acquired last fall to establish a foothold in Los Angeles, gave $11,700 to Weiss. Only one attorney at the firm contributed to Trutanich.

Steve Weston, managing partner of Alston & Bird's Los Angeles office, said that the firm works with the city attorney's office on land development matters and that individual attorneys have supported Weiss since he became a councilman eight years ago.

"We didn't know Carmen Trutanich," he said.

Since the election, Weston has reached out to congratulate Trutanich. "My hat's off to him," he said. "My view is [that] the business community will embrace him and look forward to working with him."

Lawyers who didn't give to Trutanich could still "make amends" by contributing to relieve his campaign debt, Stern said.

Although the election is over, Trutanich has thousands of dollars in outstanding debts from his primary and general election campaigns, according to the city ethics commission. Candidates have nine months after any election to raise funds to settle debts.

Robert Philibosian, co-chairman of Trutanich's transition team, said firms shouldn't assume that contributions will be rewarded with legal work. Trutanich, a former Los Angeles deputy district attorney, has promised to reduce the office's dependence on outside counsel. The outgoing city attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, has come under fire for farming out too much work to private law firms.

"He has made it very, very clear that he is going to substantially reduce outside counsel engagement," said Philibosian, who is of counsel at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton in Los Angeles. "He doesn't have anything against lawyers and law firms. Some of his best friends are lawyers. But he feels an obligation on behalf of the city as a public official to reduce costs to the taxpayer. That is one substantial way he can do it."

When necessary, Trutanich will hire outside counsel based on their qualifications and rates, Philibosian said.

"Nuch does not operate on a pay-for-play basis," he said. "It's all based on merit. You come before him, you get treated like anybody else and the merits of your argument will be evaluated."

Records show that Trutanich turned to political contributors when hiring his first staff members — his chief of staff, William Carter, a partner at Los Angeles-based Musick, Peeler & Garrett, gave $2,000 and his chief deputy, Curt Livesay, a criminal defense attorney who is of counsel at Trutanich's law firm, gave $1,000.

There was no connection between their contributions and new jobs, Philibosian said. Each has known Trutanich for decades, "so these are people who are almost like family to Nuch," he said.

'A moneyed district'

Lawyers who don't do business with the city still turned out for Weiss. For one thing, his district includes many of their own backyards.

"It's a moneyed district. No question about that," Regalado said. "Not only is it the West Side but the richer areas of the San Fernando Valley, as well. There are a lot of attorneys that way and law firms that exist there. That undoubtedly is part of it, as well."

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, for instance, does almost no work with the city, said Mel Levine, a partner in the Century City, Calif., office of the Los Angeles-based firm. Still, the firm's lawyers gave more than $9,000 to Weiss.

"He has a number of friends in the firm," Levine said. Many of the partners have kids who play sports with his kids, or they attend the same synagogue, he said.

"These were personal relationships he had developed over the years either through family or personal contacts of his own. This really was not a business-based decision."

Personal relationships drove lawyers at Sonnenschein to give more than $8,000 to Weiss, said Darry Sragow, a partner in the firm's public law & policy strategies group. The firm itself gave $1,000 to Weiss's campaign.

Sonnenschein doesn't always contribute to local elections, but Weiss asked for support, Sragow said.

"I certainly don't ever recall getting a call from Trutanich," he said. Still, he noted, politics is "all about making new friends."

Trutanich wasn't completely without friends in the legal suites. O'Malley Miller, a prominent real estate partner at Los Angeles-based Munger, Tolles & Olson, gave $1,000 to Trutanich. Other Munger Tolles attorneys gave more than $18,000 to Weiss.

Miller that said his reasons for supporting Trutanich were simple: "He and I had known each other since college. I couldn't give any money to Jack."