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Home My WebLink AboutC-4331 G—U3M 1100— ID 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 ARCADIA, 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 Seventy Dollars ($210.00 - $370.00). Effective July 1, 2021, the hourly range of rates for Attorney time will be from Two Hundred Ten to Three Hundred Eighty Dollars ($210.00 - $380.00). See Schedule I for a full Fee Schedule. LCW will provide the Client with written notification of any adjustment in the range of rates. LCW bills its time in minimum units of one-tenth of an hour. 1 9246907.1 LC001-009 For Litigation Matters See Schedule II attached for a description of LCW's Litigation and EDiscovery Management. Other Expenses City agrees to reimburse LCW for necessary costs and expenses incurred by LCW on behalf of City. LCW 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. Arbitration of Professional Liability or Other Claims Disputes. If a dispute between City and Attorney arises over fees charged for services, the controversy will be submitted to binding arbitration in accordance with the rules of the California State Bar Fee Arbitration Program, set forth in California Business and Professions Code, sections 6200 through 6206. The arbitrator or arbitration panel shall have the authority to award to the prevailing party attorneys' fees, costs and interest incurred. Any arbitration award may be served by mail upon either side and personal service shall not be required. 2 9246907.1 LC001-009 If a dispute arises between City and Attorney over any other aspect of the attorney-client relationship, including, without limitation, a claim for breach of professional duty,that dispute will also be resolved by arbitration. It is understood that any dispute as to any alleged breach of professional duty (that is, as to whether any legal services rendered under this agreement were allegedly unnecessary, unauthorized, omitted entirely, or were improperly, negligently or incompetently rendered) will be determined by submission to arbitration as provided by California law, and not by a lawsuit or resort to court process except as California law provides for judicial review of arbitration proceedings. Both parties to this agreement, by entering into it, are giving up their constitutional right to have any such dispute decided in a court of law before a jury, and instead are accepting the use of arbitration. Each party is to bear its own attorney's fees and costs. 6. 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 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. 7. Assignment This Agreement is not assignable without the written consent of City. 3 9246907.1 L0001-009 8. 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. 9. 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. 10. Term This Agreement is effective July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023, 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 ARCADIA, A Professional Corporation A Municipal Corporation Byi ` By: -r N.me: c,17 •(i0 Name: Dominic Lazzaretto Title: /1/( Title: City Manager Date: ,‘/Z O Date: w1 I 207-0 APPROVED AS TQ FORM: P Stephen P. Deitsch City Attorney City of Arcadia 4 9246907.1 LC001-009 SCHEDULE I—FEES & COSTS 1. Hourly Rates (As of Agreement Effective Date) Partners $370.00 Senior Counsel $320.00 Associates $210.00 - $300.00 Labor Relations/HR Consultant $240.00 Paralegals $130.00 E- Discovery Specialists $130.00 Law Clerks $130.00 - $170.00 2. COSTS 1. Photocopies $0.15 per copy 1. Hourly Rates (Effective July 1, 2021) 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 5 9246907.1 LC001-009 SCHEDULE 11 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. 6 9246907.1 LC001-009